


i found myself (when i found you)

by orphan_account



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Force-Sensitive Finn, more tags to be added as shenanigans ensue
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-16
Updated: 2018-04-20
Packaged: 2019-02-03 05:58:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 35,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12742368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: that’s it?that’shis mission? to find some girl that may or may not exist?+or the one where finn gets his first official mission as a jedi and it isn't at all what he expects it to be.





	1. one.

The amount of times Finn has checked his robes is ridiculous. They’re straight, just like they were the last time he checked, and he looks good, just like a real Jedi. Which he is now. A real Jedi, that is.

He’s looking down, adjusting his belt  _again_  when Master Skywalker enters the room. Finn had been waiting in the Jedi Master’s office for some time now. He got word from Artoo - yes, Master Skywalker sent his  _personal_  droid - that he was ready to receive his first official Jedi mission. He couldn’t be more nervous.

“Sorry for the wait,” Master Skywalker breezes around to the chair behind the desk. Finn’s always marveled at how he moves, how he carries himself. It must be difficult, having the entire fate of the Jedi Order rest solely on his shoulders, but he still keeps a rather pleasant disposition. His mental fortitude is inspiring. “One of my lessons ran late, but glad to see you showed up on time.”

“Actually I got here early.” Finn’s response makes Master Skywalker laugh even though he didn’t think it was that funny. Maybe it was something in his delivery.

“So. Your first mission.”

Finn swallows. Ever since he started training he wondered what it’d be. Would he go find Force-sensitive children in remote star systems? Would he be tasked with taking down some small regime - there were whispers of an organization calling themselves the First Order being particularly nasty on some planets - in order to keep the peace and the balance within the galaxy? Or would it be something benign like gathering kyber crystals?

Whatever it was, though, Finn would carry it out with the utmost sense of professionalism.

Master Skywalker leans forward, rests his hands on his desk and folds them over one another. For a split second all his grace disappears and Finn finally sees the wear and tear his life has taken on him.

“You are my most capable Jedi, Finn. Green, yes, but very, very capable. Aside from all your capabilities, I also happen trust you, which is why I’m giving you this particular mission.” Finn eagerly awaits the appearance of a folder or a datapad or  _something_  with an itinerary of some sort to help him out once he departs from Jedha. Master Skywalker doesn’t pull one out, though. Instead, he scrubs his hand over his face and takes a deep breath before continuing. “I can’t be sure, but on a planet called Jakku there is a girl -  _might_  be a girl. I need you to find her and bring her here. If she’s even there.”

That’s it?  _That’s_  his mission? To find some girl that may or may not exist?

“Does this girl have a name?” Finn asks.

Master Skywalker considers it for a moment. “I wouldn’t know it.”

“Okay. Do you have a photo of her? So I can at least know who to look for?” Much to Finn’s surprise, Master Skywalker shakes his head.  _Calm_ , he reminds himself.  _Maybe this is a test._  “Master Skywalker, how am I meant to find someone whose name I don’t know and whose appearance I’m not privy to?”

“She’ll - “ he sighs, scratching at his beard. “She’ll be strong with the Force. Very strong. Just - just try and use it to find her.”

Finn has the urge to fix his belt again.

Master Skywalker stands from his desk and walks over to the large window in his office. He stares out at the large field where the younger padawans usually go after lessons to run around and get rid of any extra energy. He smiles wistfully looking at the younglings before turning back to Finn.

“A long time ago, probably no more than a year after you were born, there was a man called Snoke who wanted to create an army of Dark Side Force users so he searched the galaxy for young Force-sensitive children to manipulate and turn. My sister, her army, and I managed to stop him before he could really get started but in the midst of everything, I had to hide from him one of the strongest Force-sensitive children I’ve ever come across just to be safe.”

Finn can hear the sadness in his voice, the regret. It’s yet another reminder of the difficult life the Jedi Master has lived.

“So I took this young girl and I - “ he stops, swallowing back whatever emotions were threatening to make their way to the surface. “I left her on Jakku, wiped her memory so she wouldn’t remember any of it and went off to make sure Snoke wouldn’t find her.”

Before he could think to hold his tongue, the question comes tumbling out of his mouth. “But why not go back for her once you defeated Snoke?”

Master Skywalker laughs, albeit humorlessly. “Shame. Embarrassment. No one knew what I did and I was afraid of what would happen if people did know. The revered Jedi Luke Skywalker abandoning little girls on desert planets? Not exactly a great look. In fact, to this day the only people that know are myself, and now you.”

Finn swallows. He can’t decide if he should feel honored or burdened by knowing such a heavy secret.

“Which is why I need you to go find her. It’s been far too long and I - it’s time she comes back, that she leaves that planet. I need to let her know. I need to explain to her why I did what I did.”

Finn understands. No one really likes to think about it, but Master Skywalker is getting older in age. He understands if he suddenly feels the need to start making amends, righting the wrongs he’s done in his life. Still, he wishes this particular wrong was a bit easier for Finn to help him right.

“You can count on me Master Skywalker,” Finn rises from his chair and walks over to stand behind him. “I promise you I’ll do my best to find this girl and bring her back.”

Master Skywalker smiles at him over his shoulder. “I have no doubt you will, Finn.”

* * *

After being scheduled to depart for Jakku the following day, Finn could barely sleep that night. And when his busy subconscious finally did manage to quiet enough to allow him to drift off to sleep, he ended up having the strangest dream.

He’s in a room - at least he  _thinks_  it’s a room; everything is pitch black so he can’t really tell. His feet are wet from the shallow water that comes up to his ankles. Even in the darkness, he can just make out a faint blue light. It reminds him of a sound wave, a static thin blue line that ebbs and flows in a pattern that feels familiar to him somehow, calming.

He wades through the water, taking heavy steps toward the illuminated line until a sudden wave of emotion stops him from being able to move at all. The blue light moves more frantically now; where there were smooth hills and valleys there are now sharp peaks and troughs. He feels a whole host of things - fear, loneliness, hurt, abandonment. None of these feelings are his own, though. That much he can tell.

 _“_ _Let me help you,”_  his voice echoes to no one in particular. Maybe he’s talking to the blue line.

He’s about to offer his help again when the blue line fades and suddenly Finn can see a face. It appears too quickly, too intensely for him to properly focus. He can only make out a few features, the most worrisome being a pair of watery hazel eyes.

Finn shoots up in bed, his breath coming fast and shallow. He’s had strange dreams before but none like that. It felt like a dream yet not like one at all.

As he gets out of bed to grab a fresh shirt - the one he has on is now sweat-soaked - he wonders if the dream was a sign.

Maybe this assignment is too much for him. Maybe Master Skywalker should send someone more seasoned to find this girl. Maybe Master Skywalker shouldn’t even be looking for this girl in the first place.

But Finn knows all the maybes in the galaxy don’t mean anything now. He’s been given the mission and he’ll be expected to carry it out. No matter how unprepared he may be.

* * *

The journey to Jakku is an interesting one.

Because it’s basically one ginormous desert planet, there isn’t really a proper hangar to land so Finn ends up docking near what his map says is the Nima outpost. He also knows from the little bit of intel he did on the way here that this is usually where all of Jakku’s inhabitants tend to gather.

If the girl was here, Nima is probably where she’d be.

When he reaches the outpost, he’s a little disheartened to see it’s crawling with greasy looking men, creatures of all sorts, women probably older than Master Skywalker - basically everyone  _but_  young women.

It’s still early in the day, though. There’s still a chance she’s just not here now and could come through later. Finn is a very patient man.

Not keen to stand in the sun’s rays for Force knows how long, Finn ambles over to an empty table positioned underneath a tent of shade. Even with all the noise around, he could still use this time to meditate. Actually, that might be the best thing he could do at the moment. Maybe the meditation would help him locate this girl through the Force.

After a few moments alone Finn becomes aware someone’s sat on the bench opposite him. He can feel a muddiness, a grey cloud come over him during his meditation.

That,  _and_  whoever just sat down shook the table quite a bit.

“You’re not from around here,” Finn opens his eyes at the gravelly voice. It belongs to a man that couldn’t be older than him. He has several rings adorning his hands and gold plating every other one of his teeth. There’s a slickness about him that puts Finn on high alert. He has a feeling he’s about to be swindled out of something.

“No, I’m not,” Finn replies with a small smile.

The young man licks his teeth. Unsettling. “Well, then what is it that you need?” Finn frowns at his question to which he rolls his eyes. “Fancy people like you don’t come to Jakku unless they need something. So what is it? A ship? A rusty part you can resell elsewhere for ten times the value? Or perhaps something more... _interesting_?”

Okay. Finn’ll play this fella’s games.

“Actually,” he leans in closer, hands folded on top of the table. “I need to find someone. I think they might be here.”

“Oh, so you’re a bounty hunter?” He asks with a raised brow. He seems impressed, like he likes him more so than he did a few seconds ago.

“I don’t have a name and I can’t describe her but - “

The young man cuts him off by raising a dirty hand. “Is this  _her_  you’re looking for someone’s grandmother?”

Finn shakes his head. “She’s probably around my age. Young, twenties, maybe.”

A beat of recognition flashes across his face. He knows  _exactly_  who Finn is talking about.

“Sorry mate, the only women here are older than time itself.” He slaps his hands on the table before standing. His reaction reeks of fear. This girl Master Skywalker sent him to find had a Jakku swindler scared to even reveal her identity. Maybe she was best left on this planet.

He tries to hurriedly scurry away, ducking through tents selling handmade jewelry and weapons older than he is, but Finn is quick on his heels. He manages to cut the guy off behind a tent peddling pirated holofilms and stops him with a firm hand around his bicep.

“You know who she is, don’t you?” It's more of a statement rather than a question. It’s also one devoid of any Force-tricks. He doesn’t want to mind-warp the guy into telling him if he doesn’t have to.

“What do you want with her?” He asks after taking a minute to think.

“I just want to talk to her,” he shrugs.

He licks his teeth again, a smug smirk replacing his look of trepidation. “And what do I get out of telling you?”

Finn is going to regret this but - “What do you want?”

The man lifts a brow and his eyes roam over the robes on Finn’s shoulders. He runs his finger down the lapel, letting out a low whistle.

“I could use a robe like this.”

Master Skywalker is going to kill him but in hindsight, it’s all in the name of finding this mystery girl.

Finn sighs and shrugs out of the robe leaving him in his sleeveless tunic. He holds the garment away from the young man, motioning for him to reveal the girl’s identity first.

“Out near Kelvin Ridge, there’s an overturned AT-AT. Your girl lives there.”

Finn narrows his eyes, jerking back the robe when the man tries to reach for it. “What’s her name?”

He clicks his tongue, swearing silently to himself. “Kriff, man, I’ve already told you too much! If she even finds out I told you all this - “

“I won’t tell her how I found out, I promise. Now, her name.”

The young man stares at Finn, resolute. He wasn’t going to answer him, that much was annoyingly obvious.

“Why are you so scared of her?”

“If you go out and actually manage to cross paths with her,” he takes a rather lengthy pause, that look of fear on his face again. “You’ll find out.”

Though it was ominous and not at all helpful, Finn shrugs him off and gives him the robe. He watches him head off through the maze of tents before turning to go back to his ship.

* * *

After a quick glance at his map, Finn sees that Kelvin Ridge is quite a ways away. It was technically not far enough to fly to by ship but too far to walk on foot if he wanted to make it before nightfall. But since he didn’t have a speeder or any other mode of transportation, he reasoned he’d fly overhead and see if the monitors could pick up the AT-AT and give him somewhere secure nearby to dock.

It takes a while - probably close to a standard hour - because of all of the abandoned junk on Jakku’s surface, but Finn eventually finds  _the_  AT-AT. He docks a half-mile or so away and heads over on foot. The sun is setting so he figures she should be there, if not on her way. He could always just catch her before she goes inside if that was the case.

(He brings his lightsaber, too. He doesn’t want to use it, in fact, he hopes he doesn’t have to, but everything in his being is telling him this girl is dangerous. Better safe than sorry.)

When Finn is mere meters away from the overturned hunk of metal, he’s stopped clean in his tracks by an overwhelmingly strong shift within the Force.

It feels like warmth, as if the setting sun has popped back up to its highest point in the sky and is shining down directly on him. It’s comforting, too, like a friendly hug or a familiar smile. It’s all-encompassing, like he couldn’t push it away even if he tried.

She must be inside.

Finn approaches the AT-AT cautiously. His fingers flex over the grip of his ‘saber. Should he knock? It feels silly considering he’d be banging on the underside of the rusting machine, but he can’t very well just barge in. So knocking it is.

Just when he’s about to rasp his knuckles against the sand-worn metal, his senses alert him to another shift in the Force. It’s no longer coming from inside the AT-AT, but from  _behind_  it.

She knows he’s here.

Idly speaking, Finn’s impressed at her observational skills. Then again, he’d expect nothing less from someone who grew up on a planet like this. He imagines one would need to constantly be aware of threats and be prepared to protect what’s theirs. Which reminds him, he should probably make it his priority to let her know he’s not here to harm her in any way. He doesn’t really want to find out why the boy from Nima was so afraid of her.

There’s a creaking coming from the left of the metal structure and Finn smiles. She’s not  _that_  good.

“Hello?” He calls out, tiptoeing toward the sound. “Listen, I don’t know your name but I’m not here to hurt you. In fact, I just wanna talk so if you could come out - “

When Finn reaches the side of the AT-AT he heard the noise come from he’s confused to find it empty. That is until he feels a boot planted firmly in the middle of his back.

He topples over, his lightsaber rolling a few feet away in the sand. Before he can flip over onto his back, he narrowly misses the downward swing of - a staff? Is she really attacking him with a staff?

“Hey!” Finn yells out in an effort to get her attention. For a split second, he can fully make out her form. She looks angry, like a predator that’s caught another animal trying to steal from them.

Well, this isn’t going to be pleasant.

Finn manages to scramble to his feet, his hands outstretched in front of him. “If you could just hold off for a second - “ he parries to the right to avoid getting hit with the staff. He’s trained for this, much more adept at combat than she is, but he doesn’t actually want to use any of his skills. He’d much rather just talk to her but maybe talking wasn’t going to work.

He waits for the perfect opportunity to grab ahold of the end of the staff when she tries to strike him. She’s strong - deceptively so - and puts up quite the struggle when he attempts to yank it from her grasp. He just manages to use it as leverage to turn and spin her into his chest.

He tosses the staff away and grabs her arms to keep them from thrashing about. He braces her back flush against his front but just when he thinks he has her restrained, her head flies back straight into his nose. He immediately abandons his grip in favor of checking his nose for any signs of blood. The distraction allows her to sweep his legs, get him on the ground, and gather her staff to point at his throat.

“Who are you and why are you asking around about me?” Her eyes are wild, the unmistakable buzz of the Force all around her spurring her on without her even knowing it. Master Skywalker was right. She is pretty strong with it. He can only imagine how scary she’d be if she actually learned to use it properly to her advantage.

“Oh good,” he winces. His whole face aches. “So you  _are_  who I’ve been looking for, then. My name’s Finn and - ”

The end of her staff gently resting against his chest cuts him off. “I don’t care what your name is, why are you asking people about me?”

“People? I only asked  _one_  person - “ Finn sighs as she pushes the staff a little harder against his sternum. Her impatience is quite off-putting. “A very powerful person - a Jedi - sent me to find you and bring you back to our temple. That’s why I was asking. I needed to find you.”

The girl blinks, her fierce facade cracking just the slightest, and tightens her grip on the staff. “Jedi don’t exist. Not anymore.”

“Oh, no, we’re still around. We’re just a lot more low-key these days. It’s safer that way.” Finn responds in earnest. “What’s your name?”

She doesn’t answer, just narrows her eyes at him. “If you’re telling the truth, what does this Jedi want with me? I’m just a scavenger, a nobody.”

He manages a rueful smile at her blissful ignorance. “You are a lot less of a nobody than you realize.”

She frowns, clearly confused by what he said. She shakes it off quickly, though, to continue her interrogation. “If a Jedi sent you, does that mean you’re one too?”

“Not to brag but I’m kind of one of the best.”

“So I got the drop on one of the best Jedi?” She actually smiles, all proud and whatnot, and he rolls his eyes. To be fair, he  _let her_  get the drop on him. Or at least that’s what he’s telling himself. “Where’s your lightsaber then, Jedi? Aren’t you supposed to have one?”

Finn looks over and sees his lightsaber at the foot of a small sand dune a few feet away. He reaches out an open hand and the weapon flies toward him and lands in his palm. When he looks back at the girl, her eyes are wide with wonder.

“Right here,” he waves it for her to see. “So now that I’ve proved to you that I’m not just some sleazeball trying to trick you, can we continue this conversation without you pointing a weapon at my chest?”

After a moment’s hesitation, she takes the end of the staff from his chest and extends her hand to help him up. She seems less on high alert now; she’s clearly still skeptical of him but he gets the feeling he can actually talk to her civilly without fear of getting whacked by her staff.

“Rey,” she mumbles so softly it’s a wonder he even heard her at all.

“Excuse me?”

“My name. It’s Rey.”

Finn smiles. She isn’t nearly as frightening as the guy from Nima made her out to be. At least, she’s not as frightening when she isn’t trying to beat him silly with a stick.

“And in case you missed it when you were trying to skewer me, I’m Finn.” He’s happy to see his cheesy smile returned by her. He imagines there isn’t much to smile about on Jakku which is a shame. Smiling suits her.

“So, Rey,” he starts, holstering his lightsaber on his belt and dusting his clothing free of sand. “How long do you think it’ll take you to pack your things because I really wanna leave before the sun fully sets - “

“Oh no, I can’t leave,” she interrupts very matter-of-factly.

Finn tilts his head, not quite sure he’s hearing what he thinks he’s hearing. “What do you mean you can’t leave? The whole purpose of me coming here was to get you and bring you back to Jedha.”

“If this Jedi guy really wants to see me that bad he’ll have to either come himself or settle for a holomessage because I’m not leaving this planet.”

“The galaxy’s most powerful Jedi wants to see you and you want to stay  _here_? On  _Jakku_?”

“I don’t  _want_  to, I  _have_  to. I’m waiting for someone.”

“Please don’t tell me you’re staying here for some boy because I promise you no matter how cute your little boyfriend may be, he’s not worth turning away Luke Skywalker for - “

“Did you say Luke Skywalker?” She interrupts him, suddenly seeming very interested in what he had to say now.

So she’s heard of Luke. He can work with this.

“I was sort of saving that for when we were on our way to Jedha but, yes,” Finn sighs. “Master Skywalker sent me to come find you.”

She blinks and takes a moment before responding. “So he  _is_  real.”

“Yes, he is real and he wants to see you because - “ Finn knows it isn’t his place to say, to tell her about why she’s lived her entire life on Jakku and about the Force sensitivity she doesn’t yet know she has, so he holds his tongue. “You’ve lived your entire life with questions, right? You’ve always wondered about who you are and where you come from and, Rey, I promise you Master Skywalker can give you all the answers you desire.”

“How am I supposed to believe you? I don’t even know you.”

It’s a fair question. Life was so much easier when the Jedi were well known and people just automatically trusted them. Now that they’ve been hiding out for so long, taking a more subtle approach to protecting the galaxy, getting civilians to go along with their sometimes eccentric requests was a lot more difficult.

“What can I do to show you I’m sincere?” He asks, truly meaning it. He doesn’t want to go back to Jedha empty-handed.

“You got any credits on you?” He panics for a moment because, no, he doesn’t, before she starts laughing. “Relax, Jedi. I’m just joking.”

“Good. I already gave up my robes, I cannot afford to lose anything else.”

“Oh so  _that’s_  where Caph got his fancy new clothing from,” she muses. It’s nice to know the name of the young man who helped (and swindled) him. “I was wondering about that. Anyway, can I sleep on your offer? I just - I need to think.”

Finn sighs. Master Skywalker didn’t exactly give him any time constraints but he naturally assumed  _’_ _as soon as possible’_  was the Jedi Master’s preferred time frame.

Then again, he also knows he has to work this situation with Rey carefully. She seems to at least have a foot in leaving with him. He doesn’t want to do anything to completely turn her off to the idea.

“Yes, you can sleep on it,” he answers. “But I will need an answer tomorrow.”

“I will definitely have one for you. So until then,” Rey extends her hand toward him, very formal-like and friendly as if she wasn’t trying to beat the snot out of him not five minutes ago.

Finn frowns, glancing from her grease covered hand to the rusted AT-AT behind her. Of course, his altruistic nature chooses a moment like now to kick in.

“Do you have food for tonight? And I know it gets pretty cold out and I assume you don’t have a heating unit in your...home,” he swallows, unsure of how she’ll take this offer. “Would you like to stay on my ship tonight? It’s small but there’s a bed you can take in there and I have plenty of food to share and I can make it nice and toasty if need be so - “

“No thanks,” she says with a degree of finality. “I’ve made it this long without some dashing Jedi swooping in to help me; I think I can manage one more night on my own.”

Finn nods before tilting his head, his lips pursed. “Wait, did you say  _dashing_?”

Rey looks like she’s visibly trying to bite back a smile and Finn’s definitely just made it his unofficial mission to chip away at that hard exterior of hers. He just  _knows_  there’s a softie under there and he’s determined to find her.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Finn.” She turns away with a small wave and heads into the AT-AT, leaving him all alone. He has half a mind to sleep outside, to set up a small camp a few yards away from the machine she calls home, but he won’t. He doesn’t think she’d take too kindly to that.

He assumes it has everything to do with his natural disposition to protect people, but there’s something about Rey that makes him want to keep her safe. He’s fully aware that she can protect herself if need be - he’s got first-hand knowledge and a few scratches to prove it - but still. There’s an ache in his chest that wants to make absolutely sure she’s okay. He needs to know she’s warm and comfortable and not hungry or thirsty and that she’ll sleep well. It’s strange, but then again so is traveling to a planet to find a mystery girl for a mystery reason all because a mysterious Jedi Master told him to.

Regardless, Finn’ll try to push all those strange feelings aside and get some rest. He has a feeling he’s in for a long day of trying to convince her to come to Jedha with him and he’d like to be in tip-top shape for that.

* * *

Finn has a strange dream again.

This time, the blue line that plagued his subconscious the previous night is stronger, brighter, more vibrant than before. He can feel its emotions - can lines  _have_  emotions? - more intensely than he used to.

He’s glad to feel something new: hope.

It surrounds him, warm and comforting and lulls him deeper into sleep. It’s almost as if the blue line were hugging him, as if it were curled against his chest, its ebbs and flows matching his every inhale and exhale.

For a moment, Finn thinks he can feel an actual body in his arms. He smells the distinct scent of Jakku sand and feels clothing fisted between his fingertips. Something tickles against his nose and when he opens his eyes, three haphazardly knotted buns blur his vision before a quick blink brings him back to reality.

His sits up immediately, absentmindedly feeling around the empty bed for something - or some _one_ , rather - that he knows isn’t there.

As he tries to calm himself and drift back to sleep, Finn makes a mental note to ask Master Skywalker what the meaning of his weird dreams could be.

* * *

Finn had the luxury of growing up in a time where no great wars or battles took place. He grew up safe, under the tutelage of Master Skywalker in absolute safety. But despite all of that, he is still quite sure the earth-rattling boom that’s jolted him awake is an explosion.

A  _big_  explosion.

As he jumps up to gather his things (boots, lightsaber, robes - wait; don’t have  _those_ anymore) there’s only one thing on his mind:  _gotta get to Rey, gotta get to Rey, gotta get to Rey_. It repeats in his head over and over again as he pre-sets the coordinates to Jedha, as he runs out of the ship toward her AT-AT - as he sees smoke and flames coming from the direction of the outpost.

He isn’t totally certain what’s going on - is the planet under attack? - he just knows he has to get to Rey.

Finn’s stomach bottoms out when he stops a few yards out from the AT-AT at the sight of the group of white armored figures huddled around the machine.

“Stormtroopers?” This is impossible. They’re not supposed to be a  _thing_  anymore. So why are they here and what do they want with Rey?

Finn surveys the scene before he makes a move. There’s five of them, only three with blasters. Two are currently working on prying open the AT-AT carcass, the others are standing guard. He reckons he can take them all out he just needs to be smart about this so -

A panicked scream rings through the smoky air and he knows it’s Rey’s. To hell with being smart.

With the flick of his wrist, he ignites his lightsaber and charges toward the Stormtroopers. Those of them who have blasters manage to get off a few shots before he deflects them all, sending them back their way. The redirected blaster fire only takes out one of them while the rest are left standing. He gathers one of the remaining two in a chokehold and uses him as a shield to absorb the blasts from the other one. He quickly disarms him and pushes his ‘saber through his chest plate before turning his attention to the two who were still focused on getting inside of the AT-AT.

It would seem while he was fighting, they were successful at opening the metal door.

Finn follows them inside and takes the focus of the one currently not getting smacked around by Rey and her trusty staff. Once the Trooper is disposed of, Finn turns to help Rey. Her staff only proved so useful before the Trooper overpowered her, taking the staff from her hands and tossing it aside.

It’s pure instinct that leads him to toss her his ‘saber. Logically, it’s a dangerous move. She’s untrained, she could kill herself without even harming the Stormtrooper, but when she takes it in her hand as if it were an extension of her arm and gracefully slices at the white armor before piercing his heart, it proves to be the right decision.

Finn allows himself a breath before he rushes over.

“Hey, are you alright?” He knows he’s invading her space by grabbing her face in his hands but he’s too worried to be polite. He has to know she’s okay. For Master Skywalker’s sake, of course.

Rey nods, a faraway look in her eyes. Her hand rests on top of his before she lets out a choked sob and falls forward in his arms. She’s hugging him, holding on to the back of his tunic like a lifeline. He’s very aware of the explosions still going off outside but he’s inclined to let her have this moment.

“You’re okay now,” he whispers to her. “I got you.”

When she pulls away, she looks marginally calmer now. Well. As calm as one could be, all things considered.

“What - who are they? Why were they here?” She asks, and honestly, he wishes he knew. “One minute I was asleep and the next those... _people_  were trying to get in. I thought they were gonna kill me, Finn.”

“As if I was gonna let that happen,” he chuckles before taking on a more serious tone. “Rey, you have to come with me. You’ll be safer on Jedha.”

She hesitates before responding, still clearly apprehensive despite the attack that just occurred.

“Okay,” she sighs. “I - I’ll come with you.”

“Good,” he offers a half-smile. The fact that she’s only coming due to the chaos outside kind of puts a damper on things. “I’ve got my ship ready so just grab what you need and we’ll go.”

Rey turns and quickly dashes around to pick up a few items: a small ragged doll, a slightly less ragged blanket and, of course, her staff. Finn would’ve assumed she had more things but if that’s all she needs, he won’t complain.

The two of them run back towards Finn’s ship, actively trying to ignore the orange and red flashes streaking across the inky black sky. There doesn’t seem to be any ships above, which is a good thing. The ship he’s in isn’t equipped for a firefight.

Once they’re inside, Finn heads into the cockpit, Rey right on his heels. She takes the co-pilot’s chair and, much to his surprise, begins helping him through the process to take off undetected. She flips off the tracking beacon, clicks on the shields and double-checks that all the engines have been properly prepared for flight.

“You know how to fly?” Finn asks, unable to keep the awe out of his voice.

Rey simply shrugs. “It’s sort of one of my hobbies, the rest of which I’ll tell you all about if you get us off this planet in one piece.”

“Sure thing, Captain.” Maybe it was inappropriate to try and jest at a time like this, but call it his coping mechanism.

By the grace of the Force, they were able to make it off Jakku and safely into hyperspace without issue. Finn feels bad leaving the rest of the inhabitants to deal with whatever  _that_  was but he couldn’t risk going into a pseudo-battle with just his lightsaber and a girl with a stick. Especially when that girl is so important to Master Skywalker.

(Though there’s a part of him that believes they probably could’ve done some real damage.)

One thing is for sure, though. For his first mission, it sure is turning out to be quite a memorable one.

* * *

When they enter Jedha’s atmosphere, Finn almost doesn’t wanna wake Rey. She dozed off a little while after they entered hyperspace and he’s been content to just let her rest. She looks so comfortable - which is something considering the way she’s curled up in the co-pilot’s chair - and peaceful, he doesn’t wanna ruin it in any way.

Before he has to turn the autopilot off and switch to manual, he gives her a gentle nudge, gently waking her from her sleep.

“Hey, we’re here,” he says softly. She blinks at him, letting out a small yawn as she stretches herself into a more seated position.

“How long was I out?” She asks, rubbing her eyes.

“Not very long. Couple hours, maybe.”

“I slept for a couple of hours? Like, all the way through?”

Finn nods at her rather odd question. She seems thoroughly shocked but whatever other questions she has regarding her sleep patterns take a backseat once the ship heads through the clouds and Jedha’s landscape comes into view.

He can’t help but smile at the wide-eyed look on Rey’s face as they make their way down into the hangar. Jedha isn’t really that impressive of a planet, comparatively speaking, but she seems thoroughly impressed.

“Is this your first time somewhere besides Jakku?” He asks. Just because she was left there doesn’t mean she didn’t take trips away from the planet during her time there. Although he can’t imagine why anyone would willingly go back to that sandy hellhole once they’ve left.

“Are all of those temples?” She asks, completely ignoring his question. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life. This place is incredible.”

“I will take that as a yes then,” he chuckles. She’s quite adorable when she wants to be.

“Hey, am I allowed to be here? I mean if this is some sort of holy planet for Jedi - “

Finn stops her before she goes too far down that road of thought. “You’re an exception; you’re my guest.”

It seems the easiest explanation outside of telling her how she’s Force sensitive and doesn’t seem to know it. It’s still crazy to him that she could be so strong and not  _feel_  it. He hopes Master Skywalker will help her reach her potential. The Jedi could use someone like her.

After touching down in the (thankfully empty) hangar, Finn promptly escorts Rey inside and down the long hall to Master Skywalker’s office. They stop in front of the doors, both turning to face one another.

“So Master Skywalker is just through these doors,“ he says. “You ready?”

“No,” she chuckles, bottom lip wedged between her teeth. “When I was little, people used to tell me stories about him. I always thought he was a myth, a hero they made up to keep my spirits up since I was so young and alone. I guess I can’t believe he’s actually real. And that he wants to see me for some reason.”

Finn takes a chance (because he knows she might smack him) and grabs her hands in his. She looks down at their joined hands for a tense moment before she relaxes. “If it helps, he’s really nice. He’s the kindest, gentlest, most nurturing person I know. If he wants to see you, it can only mean good things. You don’t have anything to worry about.”

She nods, still worrying at her lip. “Can you come with me?” She suddenly asks. “I might feel better with you there.”

“Uh, sure,” the request takes him aback a little. He didn’t think they quite had that sort of rapport yet but he’s definitely delighted she does. “Yeah, I’ll come with you.”

They stand there, smiling at one another for what was probably an excessively long time before Finn clears his throat, remembering where he is and what he has yet to do.

“I’ll go first,” he says, fingers keying in the code to slide open the door. He enters slowly, peaking in to make sure he isn’t interrupting anything. “Master Skywalker?”

The Jedi Master is sat at his desk, fretting over a datapad. He looks up when he sees Finn, a huge grin on his face that morphed into something more solemn.

“Finn,” he stands to walk over and greet him. “You’re back already? Could you not find her?”

Finn rocks back on his heels, unable to prevent the smirk from forming on his lips. He’s gonna enjoy removing that look of disappointment on Master Skywalker’s face.

“Quite the opposite, actually,” he nods for Rey to come inside and when she does, it definitely makes for an interesting moment.

Finn doesn’t know what sort of reaction he was expecting, but the look on Master Skywalker’s face wasn’t exactly it. He looks incredibly sad yet incredibly relieved at the same time. He’s fidgeting with his hands, his mouth repeatedly falling open to speak only for it to close having not said a word. He guesses that’s what seeing the little girl you abandoned years ago on a desert planet all grown up will do to you.

“Hi,” he says, eyes brimming with tears. Finn almost feels like he shouldn’t be here for this.

“Master Skywalker, this is Rey.” Finn says. “Rey, this is - well, you know.”

“Um, Finn said you were looking for me.” Rey seems just as nervous as Master Skywalker. Finn’s pretty sure he’s the only person in the room not seconds away from full on sobbing.

“Yes, I was,” he breathes out a light laugh. “I just can’t believe he found you.”

“I told you I would, Master Skywalker.” Finn reminds him. This was his first mission. There’s no way he wasn’t going to complete it.

“I know and I never doubted you but, still. This doesn’t feel real. I mean you actually did it, Finn,” Master Skywalker approaches Rey, his hand reaching out for hers. She lets him take it, though she seems a bit uncomfortable. Finn should have warned him she’s not really into touching.

The amount of emotion Master Skywalker is displaying for Rey is surprising, but not nearly as surprising as what leaves his lips next.

“You found my daughter.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> alright so time for some unnecessary blurbs from me!!!
> 
> this was originally gonna be a one-shot but then i was like, why not have multiple chapters of an expanded plot that im not even totally sure of what its gonna be????? but even though i'm going into yet another fic blind plot-wise, i will promise u all that this fic will include a cheesy "force soulmate" trope (which isn't A Thing but im making it A Thing ok), the first order gettin' rekted (eventually) and _MAYBE_ a lil smut (idk yet i haven't decided).
> 
> BUT ANYWAY, i'd love to hear ur thoughts/complaints/general commentary, etc. and as always, ty for reading!!!


	2. two.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> sometimes reunions don't always go as planned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> some tlj spoilers in the bottom note! just a heads up!

Finn feels like he’s been in front of this door for days. Truthfully it’s probably only been thirty minutes, but still. It’s been a while.

“Rey,” he knocks for what has to be the millionth time. “Rey, please open the door.”

In all his years Finn never thought his first mission would end with him sitting in front of a utility’s closet begging a scavenger, who apparently is the daughter of the all-powerful Jedi that taught him everything he knows, to simply open the door. But here he is.

As soon as the words left Master Skywalker’s mouth, Rey bolted out of his office before either one of them could stop her. She was distraught, obviously, and ended up walking into the first unlocked room she came up, which just so happened to be the utility’s closet.

For a moment, Finn couldn’t decide who needed his attention more: Rey or Master Skywalker. While Rey had decided to flee, her father - wow, he’s her  _father_  - chose to simply stand there, unmoving.

After some  _very_  contemplative seconds, Finn went with Rey. He figured Master Skywalker could wait until he had calmed her down. Hopefully.

“Rey, please - “

“No,” she finally says - shouts, really - after an extended period of not saying anything back to him. “If I come out you’re just gonna make me go back and talk to him.”

“I promise you I won’t. We can go straight to my quarters and you can sit in there for as long as you want to, just - please open the door. It’s not safe for you to be sitting in a closet full of chemicals and...dust.” Finn winces but it was the best he could think of at the moment.

Just when he’s about to start bribing her with sweets from the mess - he bets she’s never had a Jaffa cake on Jakku - the door slides open, causing him to fall flat on his back and right at her feet.

“Let’s go,” she says, arms folded over her chest and still somehow attractive from this weird angle. “Before I change my mind.”

Finn jumps to his feet and motions for her to follow him. The two of them received some strange looks as they walked through the housing halls. He’s sure most of them stemmed from seeing a grimacing stranger in the temple; the rest were probably due to the awkward  _’there’s nothing major going on, everything is fine!’_ smile Finn was giving people as they passed by. They honestly couldn’t get to his quarters fast enough.

Once they were inside, Finn let out a sigh of relief. Rey stomps over and takes a seat on the edge of his bed like a petulant youngling that doesn’t want to do her daily exercises.

“Okay,” he starts, absentmindedly wishing he would have tidied his room a bit before he left for Jakku. He’s slightly embarrassed to have his bedsheets amiss and his hamper overflowing with clothes. “Do you want to talk about what just happened?”

After a thoughtful pause, she finally speaks. “Did you know?” She asks. “When you came to Jakku, did you know I was his daughter?”

“No, I had no idea. Trust me, if I did I would’ve come in a fancier ship.” She cracks the tiniest of smirks at his response and he considers that a victory.

“I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel,” she says, staring down at her hands. Finn feels for her. He can’t imagine what she must be going through. “That man just told me he’s my father.  _Luke Skywalker_  is my father.”

“That’s a good thing, though, right? You get a famous Jedi Master for a dad.”

Rey scoffs. “A famous Jedi Master that somehow  _’lost’_  me for fourteen years.”

Just then, it all hits Finn. He remembers the story Master Skywalker told him about having to protect this little girl by leaving her on Jakku but it has a whole different meaning now that he knows that little girl was Rey.

He unconsciously feels his fists clenching at his sides. How could Master Skywalker do that to her? To his own  _daughter_? Not only did he abandon her, but he left her there for  _years_. He could have gone back for her at any moment but didn’t all to protect his reputation?

Finn finds himself feeling uncharacteristically angry. He wants to march into Luke’s office and demand an explanation, demand he gives Rey a better reason for what he did other than he just didn’t want people to think negatively of him. It’s the least she deserves.

“Do you think he’s lying?” Rey’s soft question pulls him out of his angry spiral. He was probably seconds away from doing something incredibly foolish.

The thought  _had_  crossed his mind, actually. It isn’t as if Master Skywalker has ever lied to him before (sure he didn’t tell him who Rey really was but he’ll call that more of an omission of the truth rather than an outright lie) but after this whole situation, Finn can’t say for sure if the Jedi Master is being wholly honest.

Then again, there isn’t any real reason for him to lie.

“No, I really don’t think he’d lie about something like this,” he says after a calming breath. Not able to simply stand near the door and look at her pout, Finn walks over and sits beside her, their knees barely touching. “Rey, if you want, I can see about taking you back to Jakku. You don’t have to be here if you don’t want to be. I mean I’d prefer you’d stay but if it’s too hard - ”

“Don’t worry, Finn, that’s not necessary anymore,” she laughs without any humor, and it reminds him of Master Skywalker. “The only reason I wanted to go back to Jakku was because I - “ she stops herself, like she was about to tell him a secret he wasn’t supposed to know.

“Because of that cute boyfriend you have that you just can’t stop mentioning?” He says jokingly with a roll of his eyes. Well, maybe half-jokingly.

“No, there’s no boyfriend,” this time when she laughs it’s genuine and he’s sort of proud he’s coaxed it out of her. He’s also sort of relieved to hear about her lack of a boyfriend but he can’t quite figure out why it even matters to him so much in the first place. “I always thought my family would come back for me. And I - I didn’t want to not be there when they did.”

Finn’s fingers flex on his knee. He knows she doesn’t really care for unsanctioned hand holding but he’d like to right now, just as a show of support.

“Well, in a way, your family kind of did come back for you.” He offers, hopefully. “I mean, sure, he used me as a proxy, but the idea to scoop you up from Jakku was all his.”

“Right, he just couldn’t be bothered to come himself,” she muses, almost cynically. “Does Luke...have a wife?”

He knows what she’s trying to ask in a roundabout fashion: if she has a mother that’s still around.

Finn shakes his head. “As long as I’ve known him, he’s always been on his own.”

“Oh,” Rey nods, dejected. He wishes he could say something that would make this all easier for her.

“Um, but,” he smiles, the perfect pick-me-up suddenly coming to him. “You have an aunt! Master Skywalker’s sister, Leia. She used to be a princess but now she’s the general of her own little army that’s really nothing more than a peace corps, if I’m being honest. Still, and don’t tell Master Skywalker I said this, but she’s definitely the cooler of the two of them. You two will probably get on really well.”

That seems to do just the trick to lift Rey’s spirits, even if it was just by the tiniest bit.

“Well, at least I have two more relatives than I had yesterday,” she says, trying her best to sound optimistic.

“And a super cool new Jedi friend,” he reminds her with a wink.

Despite his overall warm personality, truthfully, Finn doesn’t have many  _’friends’_. He has people he’s friendly with, that invite him to hang out after training or to eat meals together in the mess, but he doesn’t really have anyone he talks to, like  _really_  talks to. None of his peers know where he came from or how he ended up on Jedha in Master Skywalker’s care. And what’s more is that he isn’t sure he even wants any of them to know.

But with Rey - this tough girl he’s only known for a little over a day - he feels differently. He wants to tell her things about himself he’s never told anyone before, wants to hear everything she has to say about herself, too. He wants to laugh with her and create memories and make her feel better when she’s sad and let  _her_  make  _him_  feel better when he’s sad and - it’s all very intense things to feel for someone he’s only just met.

He’s about to ask her if she feels it, this strange connection between them that almost feels ridiculously palpable, when there’s a soft knock on his bedroom door. It doesn’t exactly take a scholar to know who’s on the other side.

Rey reaches out for his hand, squeezing it tight with a look of unease on her face. Finn simply squeezes back, silently assuring her he’ll take care of the situation.

(How they’re somehow able to communicate so flawlessly without saying a single word is yet another thing that’s beyond him.)

Finn gets up and walks over to the door, sliding it open just enough for Master Skywalker to see him and not much else. He even angles his body in a way that would make seeing inside nearly impossible.

“Finn,” Master Skywalker narrows his eyes at the (painfully obvious) way Finn was so clearly trying to obstruct his view of inside his quarters. “Is Rey in here with you?”

Finn frowns, shaking his head. “No, I - I haven’t seen her since she ran out of your office.”

“You said you were going to look for her, though,” he reminds him, and - yeah. He regrets saying that now. “Did you find her?”

Finn blinks. He’ll openly admit he’s good at a lot of things and lying is not one of them.

“I...did not.”

Master Skywalker quirks his head, a single eyebrow raised. “So she’s just walking around the temple aimlessly then?”

“I guess so,” he shrugs. The Jedi Master only sighs, clearly over Finn’s (terribly executed) charade.

“Well if you see her,” his eyes dart to the space behind Finn inside the room. “Please let her know I need to speak with her as soon as possible.”

“Will do, Master Skywalker,” Finn says, with a wink he almost immediately regrets.

Once the door slides shut, Finn relaxes against it and turns to Rey who seems relatively unfazed by it all.

“Are you ever gonna talk to him?” He asks, genuinely. At this rate, he can plausibly see her avoiding him for days, maybe even a whole week.

“Yes, but not today. I need some time to think and wrap my head around this.” She says. “I mean what am I even supposed to do? I grew up wanting to meet my family so bad and now that he’s here, I can’t face him.”

Finn would like to tell her that he understands, that he knows what she’s going through, but he doesn’t. He can’t imagine his father one day just waltzing into life as if everything was fine, as if he didn’t grow up a near-orphan. What  _does_  one do in that situation?

But, still, he wants to give her some comforting words so he does his best to come up with something.

“Look, you don’t have to do anything right now, okay? Master Skywalker will understand if you need to take a day or two to mull this over. In fact,” he says, snapping his fingers as the thought comes to him. “Since you’re staying I’ll see if there are any spare rooms available. Maybe things’ll be easier if you sleep on them.”

Rey stands up from the bed rather quickly, her hands folding over one another. “Um, actually can I - I mean is it okay if I stay here?”

Finn swallows. “Here? As in my room?”

“Yeah,” she shrugs. “I’m not good in unfamiliar places and at least if I’m here, I’m with someone I know. Kind of.”

Against his better judgment - and the literal rules Master Skywalker set in place - Finn finds himself nodding. He wants Rey to be comfortable, especially considering the last time he left her alone she almost got kidnapped by a bunch of Stormtroopers.

(Which was extremely unlikely to happen here but still. Maybe deep down he’d like to be able to keep an eye on her, too.)

Well. What Master Skywalker doesn’t know won’t hurt him. Plus he can always excuse this by claiming special circumstances, i.e. Finn wasn’t going to say no to Master Skywalker’s own daughter.

“In that case, I’ll go see if I can find a spare cot somewhere that I can sleep on. You can have my bed.” The cots they have stored somewhere in some dusty closet are itchy and uncomfortable to sleep on but he’ll manage for Rey’s sake.

“Finn,” he’s just about to leave when Rey calls his name. She hesitates for a moment, an idea clearly turning over in her head, before she closes the bit of distance between them to throw her arms around him. He’s frozen for a second before he reciprocates. She still smells like Jakku, like heat and sand, and for some reason it makes him smile. “Thank you.”

He can’t be totally sure, but he feels like she’s thanking him for more than just the bed. He swallows the reply he wants to give -  _’always’_ \- and instead steps out of her hold, a warm smile on his lips.

“Uh, feel free to make yourself at home. I’ll try to maybe bring back some food as well. I know you must be hungry.” There’s that feeling again, that odd need to look after her and make sure she’s wholly okay.

“So do Jedi eat  _real_  food or just prepackaged portions?” Rey asks and then it occurs to him: she’s probably never had anything that wasn’t sealed in plastic and required water to make edible.

“You know what? If we wait until everyone else is in their quarters tonight, we can probably sneak into the mess and get you some real food.”

Rey’s eyes light up and the tugging in his chest grows stronger.

“Yeah, that sounds like an amazing plan!”

“Okay,” Finn nods before remembering why he was leaving the room in the first place. “But first let me go get the cot and then we can, I don’t know, watch a holofilm or something until tonight. Be right back!”

As Finn walks down the long halls of the temple to find the ‘cot closet’, his hand rubs at his tightening chest. It isn’t an alarming feeling, like he might be ill or anything, it’s just - it’s akin to what he feels when he’s wielding his lightsaber. It’s a good kind of nerves, calming yet exciting all at the same time. Even the buzz of the Force around him feels different.

And while he may not know what’s causing it - maybe it’s the joy of completing (sort of) his first mission - he thinks he could get used to this feeling.

* * *

After one and a half holofilms - the exposure to them has accidentally resulted in Rey forming a bit of a mini-crush on the star of the films they watched, Kannan Astral - Finn deems it late enough for them to try and sneak into the mess hall.

Sure enough, when they both poke their heads out of his room, the hallways are deserted. Finn (almost instinctually) takes Rey’s hand and leads her to the giant hall where everyone gathers to eat. He technically could get in a bit of trouble for this, but, again, he has to feed Master Skywalker’s daughter, right? He’s just being a good host.

“Wow,” Rey’s voice echoes in the giant empty room as she looks all around. Finn had to remind himself she’s never seen anything but sand and rusty metal her whole life. She’s likely to be impressed by just about anything. He finds it endearing, anyway. “How many people live in this temple?”

Finn shrugs before using his mess hall card to swipe himself into the kitchen area. The cooking droids usually keep some warm leftovers as well as refrigerated fruits and sweets. He thinks he’ll grab whatever he can carry and take it back out to her.

“There are probably,” he says when he emerges from the kitchen, arms full of food. Rey quickly jogs over to help him carry it all to a nearby table. “A hundred people, total, that live here, but maybe a hundred more that eat here. A lot of students from the nearby temples like to come over and eat with us since we’re Master Skywalker’s padawans.”

Rey frowns, a little wrinkle forming between her brows. Finn thinks it’s weird he notices such a little, insignificant thing like that.

“A padawan? That’s like a...”

“Like an apprentice. He teaches us everything about the Force and how to use it properly,” he chuckles, opening a container of starblossoms and pushing it her way. “These are starblossoms. They’re my favorite.”

Rey grabs one of the carefully sliced pieces and pops it into her mouth. He feels a bit creepy staring at her, waiting for expression, but he’s just really keen to see whether or not she likes them.

“Oh, wow,” she laughs, licking the juice from the fruit from her lips. Finn’s only just a little distracted. “Those are...really sweet. But I like them!”

“Good,” he exhales before adding, “Because if you didn’t, I was gonna have to drop you back on Jakku immediately.”

Rey sticks her tongue out at him before nodding toward another item of food he brought out. He hands her the pepper pretzels, choking back a laugh when she tries it and almost immediately shakes her head.

“Ew, no. This one is a no,” she says, drinking from the glass of water he sat beside her. She wipes her mouth with the back of her hand before going in for more starblossoms. “Where are  _your_  parents?”

Finn ducks his head. There’s no way she could have known, so he doesn’t blame her for bringing it up, but still. It definitely isn’t one of his favorite things to talk about.

“I don’t know,” he answers quietly, poking at the leftover pepper pretzel in front of him. “Master Skywalker found me and took me in when I was young, so I don’t really have any memory of my family.”

He can’t bring himself to meet her eyes, but when she gently rests her hand on top of his, he feels like it’s a little easier to breathe.

“Kind of weird, isn’t it?” She says, fingertips tapping against the back of his hand. He looks up, a questioning expression on his face. “The way you and I are so alike.”

“Maybe it’s fate,” he shrugs. “Maybe you and I were, like, always destined to find each other.”

Finn realizes a little too late that that was probably way too heavy of a thing to say but he meant it. He can’t fully explain it but he can just  _feel_  that he’s connected to Rey somehow.

Rey gives him the tiniest of smiles before reaching over to pull a few more containers of food in front of her.

“Okay,” she rubs her hands together excitedly. “Let’s try some more of this stuff!”

By the end of it all, they’ve tried just about everything - savory things, sweet things, tart things,  _all_  things. They’ve pinpointed the things Rey likes - starblossoms, spice cakes and nerf nuggets - and the things she doesn’t - goff-milk, fodu, and pepper pretzels - and Finn makes sure to remember it all. Just in case.

Once they’re both too full to try anything more, they both return all the empty containers and leftovers back into the kitchen before ambling back to Finn’s quarters.

As soon as he’s inside, Finn collapses on the cot he dragged in earlier and Rey does the same on his bed.

“The last time I ate this much, I was eight and I scarfed down like six portions in one sitting.” She comments, hand resting on her stomach. “Although, portions never tasted  _that_  good.”

Finn chuckles. He’s glad she enjoyed herself but he’s too tired to verbalize it. He hasn’t slept since before they left Jakku, and that, along with the array of food in his belly, means he’s just about ready to sleep for the next three days.

“Hey Finn,” he turns his head toward her, eyes barely able to stay open. “Can we finish the holofilm we started earlier?”

And as if he was going to say no.

After mustering up some energy - likely his last bit for a while - Finn grabs his datapad and sits next to Rey on his bed, their backs against the wall behind him. Normally he’s wide-awake whenever  _Moon Battles_ , one of his favorite films, is on but after about five minutes, he feels himself drifting to sleep. He’s just about to wonder if Rey would mind him using her shoulder as a pillow when she rests her own head against  _his_  shoulder. He smiles to himself and scoots closer so she’s as comfortable as possible.

It’s been a crazy three days, but Finn thinks this isn’t such a bad way to end them.

* * *

When Finn opens his eyes the next morning, the first thing he notices is that someone else is in his room. His Jedi instincts are about to kick in when he blinks and realizes that someone is just Rey.

She’s sat just against the wall opposite his bed, her wavy hair, out of the buns she wore last night, perfectly framing her face. He can’t tell if the soft glow around her is coming from the sun’s rays shining through the window in his room or if it’s just something that happens naturally. Either way, it makes him feel all pleasantly warm inside. He can’t remember ever having someone turn his insides into a knot like she seems to do so expertly.

He watches her for a bit as she stares out of the window at the birds flitting past the window and the younglings running around the large field, eager to play around a bit before breakfast. He sees her serene expression turn into a bit of a confused frown before she looks over at him as if he had been talking - kriff,  _please_  don’t let him have been talking out loud - to her this whole time and she’s only just now heard him.

“Hi,” she says and, honestly, Finn’s still a tad distracted by her hair -  _so_  much better than the buns, if you ask him - to really do much more then wave. “This is the first time that I can remember that I wasn’t woken up by Teedo trying to steal something from me. It’s a pretty nice change.”

“What’s a Teedo?” Finn yawns, slowly stretching and getting out of bed. He’s a little disappointed that she ended up sleeping on the uncomfortable cot instead of him. He must have fallen asleep first and she thought it easier to take the cot herself.

“Just a little thief who may or may not be my sworn enemy,” she answers with a laugh.

“Well lucky for you the closest thing here to a Teedo is K’aadar. He’s six and he likes stealing people’s sticky buns when they aren’t looking.”

“Sticky buns?” She repeats slowly. “We didn’t have any of those last night.”

Finn smirks as he slides open his closet to pull out something fresh to wear. He also makes a mental note to go by the laundry room to see if he could find a spare outfit for Rey.

“That’s because they’re way better in the morning when they’re fresh. They’re like these sweet, messy little rolled up dough thingys. They’re really good and really bad for you but - “ he stops, realizing he probably isn’t going to be able to do sticky buns justice by simply describing them to her. “I’ll make sure to grab us some extra when we go to breakfast.”

It’ll probably cost him a few weeks of mess credits but he doesn’t mind. He’s already thinking about her face when she tries her first sticky bun and somehow that makes the small sacrifice worth it.

Once he’s grabbed his clothes, Finn turns to her. “Do you want to shower before we go eat?”

Rey blinks, mouth falling open. “I, uh - sure,” she stutters. “I’ve never had a proper shower before so that should be fun.”

It’s sort of a bittersweet thing for him, really. He likes that she’s able to have all these things now but he hates that she never had them in the first place.

“Well, the ‘fresher is right through there. The shower panel’s a little tricky to work but you can probably figure it out, you’re smart enough,” he says pointing toward the refresher in his room. “Towels are right beside the shower and while you do that, I’m gonna see if I can get you some fresh clothes.”

Rey thanks him again for nothing in particular but Finn knows it’s for just about everything he’s done since Jakku. He waits until she’s disappeared into the ‘fresher to head over to the laundry room where he actually manages to find something he thinks should be about her size. He quickly jogs back to his room and leaves the neatly folded clothes on the edge of the cot for her to find once she stepped out of the shower.

Once he’s satisfied she’s all squared away - he leaves a little note pointing her in the direction of his spare bottles of moisturizer - Finn goes to the communal ‘fresher to shower himself. He hasn’t used it in years - ever since before he got his own quarters with a ‘fresher in it - and thankfully when he does, it’s empty. He quickly showers, gives his hair a wash and changes into a clean outfit. He’s about to go check on Rey when, as luck would have it, he runs right into Master Skywalker in the hallway.

“Finn,” he greets him with a warm, tight-lipped smile before noticing where the young Jedi had just come from. “You’re using the communal refresher? Is there something wrong with yours?”

Finn shakes his head, debating on how exactly to best answer him. “No, it’s just that Rey is using it so - “

“Oh?” Master Skywalker’s eyebrows nearly reach his hairline. “So then I take it she stayed with you last night?” It’s more of a statement than a question and Finn really can’t gauge his feelings regarding the matter.

“Well this is a big temple and she didn’t want to sleep alone in an unfamiliar place, so.” He really hopes that suffices as an acceptable explanation.

The Jedi Master hums before asking what Finn had hoped he wouldn’t but knew he wanted to. “She didn’t want to sleep alone, so she slept in your bed with you then?”

Finn feels his cheeks go warm. “Of course not, Master Skywalker. We were in two separate beds, I would never - I mean she’s your daughter, right, so it would be disrespectful of me to - I mean not that I  _wouldn’t_  because she’s obviously beautiful but - “

“Finn!” Both of the men’s attentions are turned toward down the hall where Rey was fast approaching, waving at them both. Finn’s never been more thankful for an interruption in his life. “Oh, I’m sorry, am I interrupting?”

“Oh, thank the Force,” Finn mutters under his breath. Had it not been for her he surely would have talked himself into quite the predicament.

“Not at all, Rey,” Master Skywalker straightens, doing his best to force a friendly smile. “How are you this morning? You look quite refreshed, I take it you slept well?”

“Yes, I slept fine,” Rey nods with a polite smile before turning her attention to Finn. You’d have to be blind not to notice the way Master Skywalker visibly deflates.

Things are unbearably awkward between them but that’s to be expected. Still, Finn wishes they’d just move past this already. Aren’t reunions supposed to be happy?

“Finn, should we head off to eat now?” She asks hooking her thumb in the direction of the mess hall.

“If you two are going to eat breakfast,” Master Skywalker interjects. “We could all eat in my quarters. It’s been a while since I’ve gotten to use my dining table as something other than a space to repair lightsabers.”

Rey opens her mouth to speak but ends up looking to Finn to handle this. Which he won’t. He’s not getting in the middle of this.

Oh, who’s he kidding? They’re gonna make him get in the middle of this.

“Sure, Master Skywalker,” he says, much to Rey’s obvious chagrin. “Rey and I would be more than happy to join you for breakfast.”

“But before we do,” Rey once again turns to him. “Finn, would you mind showing me the way back to your quarters? It's actually a bit chillier than I expected so I think I’d like to grab a sweater before we eat.”

He would like to remind her she doesn’t actually  _own_  a sweater so her excuse could use a bit of work but Finn holds his tongue. He feels bad when he looks at Master Skywalker and sees him frowning like a kicked porg, but nonetheless, he escorts Rey toward the direction of his quarters, wholly intent on just circling back to Master Skywalker’s quarters since the both of them knew there was no sweater to retrieve.

So far, being in the middle sucks.

And as soon as they’re out of earshot, Finn lets Rey know just how much it sucks.

“Hey, can you not make me choose between you and Master Skywalker? It’s a position I do  _not_  like.” He’s sure to keep his voice down. The hallways are a tad busier than normal and Jedi are notorious gossipers.

“I’m sorry I just,” she pauses, searching for the right words. “I feel like he expects me to just accept him with open arms, and I’d really love to, I would, but I just can’t. Not right now, at least. Every time I look at him I’m reminded that  _this_  is the man that abandoned me.”

“And I get that, Rey, but he’s trying, okay? He just wants to be able to explain everything.” When they turn the corner, they’re quite close to Master Skywalker’s quarters so Finn stops and pulls Rey aside for some final words before they go in. “Look, I’m not saying you should start arranging family dinners or anything, just - just hear him out? That’s all I’m asking for.”

Rey pouts, arms folding over her chest, and, really, he doesn’t think he should find it as adorable as he does.

“Fine,” she concedes. “For you, I’ll do my best to give him a chance.”

Finn smiles, fighting the urge to hug her. He doesn’t think he ever felt the need to be quite this touchy-feely before he met her.

By the time they enter Master Skywalker’s quarters, Finn can already smell an array of food before the door even slides open.

Of course, because he is  _the_  Jedi Master, his quarters are a lot more impressive than anyone else’s in the temple. It’s almost like a mini flat, really, which is ironic considering Master Skywalker isn’t the type to need a lot of living space. In fact, Finn is certain he’d be just fine in a single room with an electric stove, a cot and a bit of room to meditate.

Then again if that were the case he wouldn’t have very much space to invite his estranged daughter and most trusted former-padawan over for breakfast.

“Oh, hello Finn! So nice to see you!” C-3PO greets the two of them cheerfully as they walk through the short corridor of Master Skywalker’s quarters.

“Morning, Threepio,” Finn smiles before turning to Rey who looks something bordering on ‘in awe’ at the golden droid. “Is Master Skywalker in the dining room?”

Threepio nods dutifully. “Yes, he told me to look out for your and Lady Rey’s arrival. Follow me, I will show you both the way.”

Once they reach the dining room, welcomed by an unusually smiley Master Skywalker and just about every breakfast food he’s ever heard of, the tension in the room ratchets up a few notches. But Finn, determined to get them to reach some sort of armistice, does his best to smooth things over.

He sits next to Rey on one side of the table but still between her and Master Skywalker, who sat at the head of the table. He mostly let them talk even though the conversation was mostly about benign things such as Rey’s thoughts on toast and Master Skywalker’s love of caf. It was all fine - and maybe even a bit enjoyable; Master Skywalker did manage to actually make Rey laugh at one point - until they could no longer just talk about toast and caf and the wookie in the room was screaming to be addressed.

“You know, I’m glad we finally have the chance to sit and talk now,” Master Skywalker starts. “After the way you ran out, I wasn’t sure you’d ever want to speak to me.”

Rey hesitates before responding, which Finn sees as a good thing. She’s taking his advice, not saying the first (probably less-than-amicable) thing that pops into her head and is giving him a chance.

“I’m sorry for bolting like that I just - I had so many questions, I guess I was a bit overwhelmed.”

“No, it’s fine. I know you have questions and I want to answer them all, believe me. So, please, ask away.”

As much as Finn would love to stay and play third wheel while finishing his own toast and caf, he knows when an exit is needed and now seemed like one of those times.

“Well, I should probably go and give you two some privacy - “

Much to his surprise, the minute he tries to stand up, the two of them reach out to grab the nearest of his arms to them.

“No!” Both Rey and Master Skywalker shout at the same time and - wow, they really are related.

After an awkward bit of silence, Master Skywalker speaks first.

“What I mean is, Finn, you should stay because...” he trails off, clearly searching for a reasonable excuse for Finn’s presence.

“I need you here for support,” Rey finishes and Master Skywalker nods eagerly in agreement.

So now they’re tag-teaming him. Well, at least they’re on the same page now. It’s progress.

“Yes, Finn, you should stay and support Rey.”

“Fine,” he sighs, taking his seat back at the table. “I’ll just drink my caf while you two talk.”

Rey let’s out a soft sigh of relief, her hand still clasped around his forearm. “Right, so, I guess the obvious first question is, why was I on Jakku all these years?”

And so Master Skywalker explains it all to her, just as he had explained it to Finn. He goes more in-depth this time, though, making sure to stress how it was a difficult choice for him to make and how, if he had to, it’s one he’d never make again.

Finn knows Rey is probably just as skeptical of the story as he was when he heard it. Sure, the beginning makes enough sense - hiding a super powerful Force-sensitive child away from an evil guy seems like a solid enough plan - but it’s the details that still don’t seem right. Why wipe her memory? And why after getting rid of Snoke would Master Skywalker just not return to Jakku for Rey? Surely he can’t think she’s daft enough to not wonder that point.

“Rey, I was so ashamed at what I had done by leaving you on that horrible planet that I couldn’t return and face the choice I made,” Master Skywalker finishes with a heavy sigh. “I guess I’m not as brave as all the stories say I am.”

Rey is silent for a long moment before she chuckles and, honestly, Finn thinks that a more worrying sign than tears.

“So all of this, my entire crappy childhood, was because of your fear of what people would think of you once they knew what you’d done?” Finn can sense the shift in the room. This is about to go sideways and he has no clue how to prevent it from happening.

Rey is so  _furious_ , he can sense it. And not just by the way she’s squeezing his arm, either. She has a very specific energy about her and it’s definitely changed for the worst as Master Skywalker’s story went on.

“You have to understand that at the time I was trying to convince everyone that the Jedi weren’t all bad, that we could actually do some real good for the galaxy again if the Order was allowed to return, but if they found out that I’d left a little girl - my  _own daughter_  - on a planet alone just to prevent a Force user from getting his hands on her - “

“Right, so it was either the Jedi Order or your own daughter,” Rey quickly stands from the table, nearly knocking over her cup of juice. She’s trying her best to hide it, and Finn wonders if Master Skywalker is buying the act, but she’s obviously quite hurt. Her bottom lip trembles slightly and her eyes have gone a bit watery, but underneath that hurt is still anger. A lot of it. “Some choice you made.”

Master Skywalker isn’t even able to protest before Rey’s disappears out the door. Finn sneaks a glance at him and he looks utterly exasperated. He can’t be sure if the Jedi Master thought that whole story was going to go over well, but he clearly didn’t think it’d turn out this poorly.

“Go on,” he sighs as he slumps in his chair. “Follow after her. I know you want to.”

Finn scoffs. Surely he must be joking. “She’s too upset right now, I’m gonna wait until she cools off. I just hope she doesn’t go hide in another closet...”

“Finn, what am I doing wrong here? I find her, I bring her here, I apologize and she still looks at me with so much... _pain_  in her eyes - how do I fix that?”

“Master Skywalker,” Finn sighs, not really knowing how he got roped into this role of advisor. He’ll try his best at it, though. “I don’t think that pain is ever going to go away. She was a little girl and she grew up scared and alone. She had to fight every day just to survive and - “

Finn has to pause to collect himself. He can feel that uncharacteristic bubble of anger in his chest.

“What I’m trying to say is that it’s gonna take time. Rey doesn’t trust easily so you’re gonna have to earn it. You have to show her that even though you weren’t there before, you’re here for her now.”

Master Skywalker hums, taking in Finn’s advice. He looks up at the newly minted Jedi with something of a smirk on his lips. “She trusts you, though. And it’s quite easy to see that you, uh, have a bit of fondness for her as well.”

Finn feels his face warm. He’s a little embarrassed by the thought that he’s being so obvious with the clear affection he has for Rey - or maybe he just astutely picked up on it; Master Skywalker is quite the observer - so he quickly changes the subject.

“Master Skywalker, I didn’t say before because of you and Rey reuniting and such, but we were attacked on Jakku,” his words cause the older man to straighten in his seat. “Someone was attacking the outpost and there were  _Stormtroopers_  there, too.”

“Stormtroopers? Could you tell what they wanted, what they were after?” He asks, worried.

“Rey, I think,” Finn frowns, remembering the way the Stormtroopers were so intent on getting inside that AT-AT. The more he thinks about it, the stranger it gets. No one but Master Skywalker is supposed to know who she truly is, so why would they be after her? “What would they want with her?”

“I’m not sure,” he answers and there it is again. The feeling that Master Skywalker isn’t lying, but is definitely hiding something. “Finn, I need you to make sure Rey stays here and keeps a low profile. Until we find out who sent the ‘troopers and what they want with her, she’s under your protection.”

“Trust me, Master Skywalker, she is more than capable of protecting herself.” Truthfully, his backside is  _still_  sore from the drubbing she gave him when they first met.

“I’m sure, but I would still feel better knowing you were looking out for her, too.”

Finn nods. “Of course. Consider Rey under my watchful eye.”

“Good,” Master Skywalker smiles, fingers drumming against the table almost expectantly. Finn simply takes a sip of his caf. “Shouldn’t you probably go try and find her then?”

Finn blinks. Probably not a good look to have already lost her, but, to be fair, this was all before he was  _officially_  looking out for her. Of course, now he’ll do a much better job of knowing her whereabouts.

“Well she can’t be far, she only just left,” he nervously laughs while Master Skywalker stays stoic. Guess it wasn’t  _that_  funny. “I will go find her right away!”

Finn quickly finishes off his caf - in his defense, it’s  _really _good caf - and grabs one of the remaining nerf strips from his plate before hurrying out of Master Skywalker’s quarters to go track down Rey.__

* * *

____

The list of places Rey could have gone was a very short one. After checking the mess hall, the hangar, and a particular utility’s closet, Finn heads for his quarters. Sure enough, he finds her there, sat in his bed with her back against the wall and her knees hugged against her chest.

__

“There you are,” he says once he’s stepped inside. He quickly walks over to occupy the space beside her. “I was about to send out a search team to look for you.”

__

Rey let’s out a long breath before turning to him. “Tell me I’m not overreacting.”

__

“You’re not overreacting,” he tells her, and she seems taken aback by his honesty. “I don’t think you’re being dramatic or too sensitive or whatever else you think you’re being because, if I can trust you to keep this between us, I don’t think Master Skywalker’s telling you the whole story.”

__

Rey raises an eyebrow as if she’s wary that this might be some sort of trap.

__

“Okay,” she drawls out. “I did not expect this particular conversation to go this way. I’m not sure what to say now.”

__

Finn chuckles before playfully knocking his shoulder into hers. “Listen, I’m not saying what he did wasn’t kriffing terrible, because it was. What I  _am_  saying, though, is that maybe you should try to find it in even the tiniest piece of your heart to forgive him. You don’t have to forget what he did, but I think you can forgive him for doing it.”

__

Rey looks away, his words settling with her. Finn watches her, wondering just what’s going on in her head. He thinks about his own parents, how he doesn’t know how or why he ended up without them and wonders if maybe it’s better this way. If anything this situation between Rey and Master Skywalker has made him consider that maybe not knowing is less painful than finding out the truth.

__

“You know, I’ve been so hung up on the fact that my father abandoned me that I haven’t even spared a moment to think about how the only reason he did is because I’m apparently Force-sensitive,” her eyes meet his - they’re downright sparkling thanks to the sunlight streaming through the window in the room - and she lets out a puff of cynical sounding laughter. “Me. A scavenger. Supposedly super powerful with the Force. Imagine that.”

__

“Crazier things have happened,” he says with a shrug.

__

Rey hums in response and leans her head to rest on his shoulder. Finn enjoys the silence, the feeling of the two of them just  _existing_  in each other’s company, so much so that he nearly drifts off into a light state of meditation. He’s just beginning to hone in on the buzz of the Force around him, in everything in the room, when Rey lifts her head, drawing his attention.

__

“What’s it like?” She asks. “Being able to use the Force, I mean.”

__

And, boy, was that ever a loaded question.

__

Finn doesn’t know how he could even begin to explain it to her, or if he even could put it into words at all. So he decides on the next best thing.

__

“I can show you. I think.” He answers. He doesn’t know if the idea he has in his head will even work but he’s willing to give it a shot.

__

He stands up from his bed and reaches into the first drawer of his nightstand to grab his lightsaber.

__

“Do you remember when those Stormtroopers attacked you and I tossed you this and you used it?” Rey nods, so he continues. “It takes a certain amount of the Force to be able to do that, especially with a stranger’s lightsaber. I mean, non-Force users can wield one but it’s not the same.”

__

Finn motions for her to come stand next to him, which she does. He moves behind her, his arm bracketing hers as he hands her the weapon.

__

“Okay, now turn me on,” his eyes squeeze shut as soon as the Freudian slip leaves his lips. “ _It_! I meant to say _it_! Turn  _it_  - turn the - the lightsaber - just click the button - “

__

“I got it, Finn,” Rey says, mercifully putting him out of his word-vomit misery. He can’t help but notice the smirk she’s trying so poorly to hide.

__

She clicks the lightsaber on and stumbles back into him when the glowing purple blade ignites. Finn covers her hand with his, guiding her to slowly wave the ‘saber back and forth.

__

“See, for non-Force users, this would feel kind of silly but for people like you and me - “

__

“We can feel the Force,” she whispers, eyes still mesmerized by the ‘saber. She suddenly turns to look at him, an eager smile on her face. “Can I twirl it? I wanna twirl it. Something in me is telling me to twirl it.”

__

Finn chuckles and nods before taking a careful step back. Thankfully his room is just big enough to where he doesn’t have to worry about her slicing anything in half, so he just stands back and watches her. She deftly twirls his ‘saber a few times before grabbing the hilt with both hands to take a moment to marvel at it.

__

It feels sort of oddly intimate to watch her use his ‘saber. Master Skywalker always taught him that his lightsaber was an extension of himself, of his connection within the Force. So to have it in Rey’s hands causes his chest to tighten in that pleasant way it’s been doing lately.

__

After another twirl, Rey clicks it off and hands it back to him. “Do you think Luke’ll teach me how to use the Force?”

__

“I don’t see why not. You are all-powerful, after all.” He’s only teasing but he can see the tips of her ears turn the lightest shade of pink.

__

“I think I’ll ask him, then.”

__

And for a moment, Finn’s hopeful. He thinks maybe this is the way Rey and Master Skywalker can put the past aside and finally come together as father and daughter.

__

Maybe the Force - after being part of the reason they were pulled apart - is the thing that would be able to bring them together.

__

* * *

__

It’s two days before either one of them is able to speak to Master Skywalker.

__

Ever since Finn told him about the Stormtroopers, he’s gone into recluse mode. He deferred all his classes and locked himself up in his quarters. It’s only when he and Rey are on their way to find an empty sparring room (because ever since she got her first taste, Rey's been wanting to mess around with his lightsaber more and more) that they run into Threepio and Finn is able to ask him if the Jedi Master was available. Once he confirms that he is, Finn is barely able to ask the droid to set up a meeting before Rey takes off in the direction of his office.

__

“Rey! Wait!” Finn hears Threepio say something along the lines of  _”oh, dear!”_ as he breaks out into a sprint in an effort to catch up with her.

__

He isn’t as fast as her, though, and only makes it after she’s already crashed into Master Skywalker’s office.

__

“Rey, are you okay?” Finn hears Master Skywalker ask before he rounds the corner and walks in to stand beside her. “Finn? What’s going on? Is everything alright?”

__

Rey nods, barely even out of breath from jogging down the hall. Finn, on the other hand, envies her apparent excellent cardio.

__

“Everything’s fine I just had a question to ask you and it couldn’t wait,” as she talks, Finn notices the map laid out on the desk. He vaguely recognizes the planet as Takodana and wonders why the Jedi Master is interested in it. “The other day Finn showed me what its like to be able to connect with the Force and I thought since you are  _the_  Jedi Master, you could teach me how to use it - “

__

“Absolutely not.”

__

Rey’s smile quickly fades and Finn almost does a comical double-take. Did he just say  _no_?

__

Finn steps forward, curious and confused as to why he would deny teaching his own daughter. “But Master Skywalker, you said it before yourself - “

__

“It doesn’t matter what I said before,” he curtly cuts him off. “I’m saying now that Rey is not to learn about the Force. And you aren’t to show her anything, anymore. That is an order.”

__

The two of them stand there, dumbfounded. Finn has never once seen Master Skywalker turn away someone eager to learn about the ways of the Force and it seems strange that he’s doing it now to his own daughter, no less.

__

No, there’s something more to this, something he’s not telling them.

__

When Rey moves to take a step toward him, no doubt to argue her point that he should teach her, Finn grabs ahold of her wrist, partly to stop her from making things worse and partly to anchor himself a bit. The fact that Master Skywalker would turn her away grates on him for some reason.

__

“Come on, Rey,” he says, quietly. Master Skywalker has already gone back to the papers and datapads in front of him. He’s made sure they know the conversation was over. “We should go.”

__

The walk back to Finn’s room is a quiet, tense one, but as soon as the two of them are inside, they both finally let out what they’ve been holding in since they left the Jedi Master’s office.

__

“I don’t understand him!” Rey frustratedly groans. “So he picks me up off of Jakku for what? Just to have me sit here watching everyone  _but_  me use this fantastic gift that they have? It doesn’t make any sense.”

__

Finn shakes his head. Unlike her, instead of pacing the length of his room, he’s posted up unmoving by the door.

__

“Luke usually knows what he’s talking about, and it’s not often I disagree with him, but I think this time he’s wrong.” Not since he was little and didn’t know any better had Finn referred to Master Skywalker by his first name, but that’s always been a respect thing. And Finn can’t really find it in him to show him any sort of respect right now. Not when he’s acting so outright difficult. “Something has him scared and I don’t know what that is, but what I do know is that it’s unfair for him to keep you from learning how to use all your strength to protect yourself.”

__

Rey stops pacing to look at him, a bit of worry etched in her features. “What are you saying, Finn?”

__

Finn doesn’t waste a second thought. He knows what he’s going to do, what he feels like he has to do. He doesn’t want to go against Luke’s orders but - he won’t blindly follow just any order because he’s told to. Especially one that seems like a giant mistake.

__

“Rey, I’m gonna teach you how to use the Force.”

__

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so tlj really screwed me/literally all of us with the rey skywalker thing, huh? whatever. she's still gonna be a skywalker in this dammit bc it mAKES MY FIC WORK.
> 
> couple more things:
> 
> 1) so i didn't intend for these chapters to be so long but....i guess we're aiming for like 8k a chapter now lmao
> 
> 2) which brings me to my second thing here: this chapter was originally 10k+ but that was Crazy so i ended up editing a lot out so if the end seems weird and choppy and abrupt to you like it does to me, that's why.
> 
> 3) the color of finn's lightsaber is actually a hint at a future plot point. that's all i'll say on that.
> 
> 4) i should really get a tumblr or something to post all these anecdotes instead of shoving them at the end of every chapter.
> 
> anyhow, i hope you all enjoyed this! looking forward to any comments u may leave! happy new year and, as always, thanks for reading!


	3. three.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> new feelings, old faces and weird dreams.

_A bead of sweat trickles down his forehead as his hand hesitates over the entry pad. The group of them actually drew lots to see who would have to come deliver the news and he just so happened to be the unlucky winner._

_Sometimes, He lashes out at good news; he can only imagine how He’ll react to this bit of unsavory information._

_When the door slides open, he sees Him there, standing in front of a projected image of who he thinks is_  The  _Jedi and a young boy that is definitely not Him._

_”Sir,” His head moves slightly, His ear now facing him. Well. Here goes nothing. “The squadron has returned. The - the girl, er - scavenger. The scavenger is gone. She escaped.”_

_There is a long, uncomfortable stretch of silence before He speaks._

_”How?” Such a simple question sent a shiver down his spine; he’s starting to believe he may not make it out of this alive._

_”The group meant to attack the outpost as a distraction was successful, but of the five sent to retrieve the scavenger - only one came back. And he’s severely injured. Before he went in with the medics, though, he said something. Something about a young man - a Jedi, possibly - that helped her take them out. He thinks she left with him.”_

_His back stiffens and his fists clench at his side. Not a good sign._

_”A young Jedi?”_

_Before he could respond, He unsheathed His lightsaber, ignited the weapon and slashed at the device used to project the image in front of Him until the image hissed and buzzed and flickered out altogether._

_The tantrum went on for almost a full minute before He turned to him, eyes dark and cold and utterly empty._

_”Prepare my transport,” He spat out. “It’s time I paid my mother a visit.”_

* * *

Just as Finn suspected she would be, Rey is a quick learner.

Well. Sort of.

She’s been quick with the physical part of things, the running and jumping and sparring, but the mental side, the meditation, the connecting with the Force to help her with aforementioned physical things -  _that_  seems to be causing her to struggle a bit. And the fact that they have to do all their training outdoors at night due to Luke’s ban on her Force usage doesn’t make things any easier, but, luckily the Jedi Master decided to set off on some classified trip he told no one about, so the two of them could freely work on her skills for a few days without fear of him finding out.

Even with him having to take over and teach some of Luke’s classes, Finn manages to carve out some time for Rey beforehand.

“Hey Rey,” he calls out in a hushed whisper. He’s trying to keep the amusement out of his voice, but, really. He does get a certain amount of joy watching her face adorably scrunch up like it does.

“ _What_ ,” she responds through gritted teeth.

“My class is coming in soon, so you think you can lift the rock before then?”

Rey groans, dropping her hand down by her side, defeated. Finn walks over to stand beside her doing his best not to laugh.

“I can’t lift the stupid rock, okay? I can probably punch it to dust, but I can’t lift it. Not with Force anyway,” she sighs. “Maybe Luke doesn’t want me using the Force because he knew I’d be terrible at it.”

“You’re not  _terrible_  you just lack focus sometimes, which is an easily fixable problem. Here,” Finn shuffles behind her, his hands resting on her shoulders before he gives her something of a playful shake. He’s noticed she always so eager to get things right on the first try, she ends up being incredibly tense. “Okay now relax, close your eyes and  _breathe_. You always forget to breathe.”

Rey does as he instructs and it takes him a moment before he can feel her fully at ease. His hands move from her shoulders down her arms, his fingertips barely grazing her skin. Her breath hitches, but just as he was about to remind her again to relax and breathe, she settles back into him.

Maybe it’s nothing, but Finn swears whenever he’s around Rey, the Force feels...different. He senses things more strongly, and everything seems just a bit clearer, sharper. His chest tightens and there’s almost this feeling of invincibility within him. It’s like his connection with the Force drank a ton of extra strength caf when he’s near her.

He  _would_  ask Luke about it but seeing as he’s still upset with him, Finn’ll just go check the archives for any texts describing ailments with his symptoms. Maybe his connection is out of whack or something.

“Okay, now try and think of it as the Force  _guiding_  you to move the rock, not necessarily you  _using_  it,” he says, going back to instruct her. “Your relationship with the Force has to be symbiotic, not parasitic.”

“Finn, did you read a dictionary this morning or something?”

During the couple of weeks they’ve been training - and subsequently spending a lot of time together - Rey’s gotten a lot more comfortable around him. So much so that he’s been privileged to be the target of a lot of her wit.

Finn doesn’t mind, though. Mostly because he can give it right back to her.

“I’m gonna make  _you_  read a dictionary as punishment if you don’t lift the rock,” he whispers back and gets a small laugh out of her.

When Rey lifts her hand, Finn holds his breath. She looks mightily concentrated and for a second, he thinks she’s got it. The rock even hovers a few centimeters off of the ground before -

“Ugh!” Rey’s eyes pop open once the rock falls back to the ground. She’s full-on pouting and, really. The knots that look on her face causes in Finn’s stomach can’t be normal.

He chuckles, resting his hands on her shoulders. “Don’t worry, you’ll get it. We’ve only been at this for, what? Two weeks? It takes most people years before they’re able to do this kind of stuff.”

She spins in his grasp and raises an eyebrow at him. “Are you saying it’s gonna take me years to move that rock?”

“You? Years? No,” he scoffs. “You’re a Skywalker. I wouldn’t be surprised if you moved it tomorrow.”

“Maybe  _you_  wouldn’t be surprised but  _I_  would be,” she mutters as the door to the meditation room hisses as it slides open and the group of young padawans Finn is meant to teach today come filing in. “Well have fun with your class. I’ll see you in a bit, yeah?”

Just as she turns to go, Finn grabs Rey’s hand to keep her from walking away.

(He barely even notices the slight spark he feels in his fingertips when they touch hers.

In fact, he’s pretty sure it’s something he’s totally imagined.)

“You should stay,” he says in that breathless way he sometimes says things to her. He definitely doesn’t mean to, it just sort of happens. He quickly tries to regain his friendly, easygoing vibe with a lighthearted quip. “Maybe you can learn a thing or two.”

Rey narrows her eyes and sticks her tongue at out him before making her way to the back of the room. A few of the younglings that were huddled nearby wait until she’s gone to make some comical kissy faces at him. He quiets them with a stern look before easing their frightened faces with a good-natured wink.

Once everyone’s filed in and settled down, Finn gets class started. He intended for it to be productive, as close to how it is with Master Skywalker, but thanks to Rey, it ends up falling well short of productive.

It’s not that she does anything  _directly_  to throw him off, it’s just -

It’s just ten minutes into the class she took it upon herself to join in on the exercises he was leading the younglings through. Finn tried to stay focused, really he did, but the sight of her standing amongst the six and seven-year-olds doing just about every silly breathing technique he had them do made it just a little too hard for him to take the day’s lesson seriously.

So after breathing and some quick meditation, Finn takes the younglings outside to play a few rounds of hide-n-seek. He reasons that even though it’s a game, they’re still using their Force abilities to find each other so he hasn’t  _completely_  wasted the day.

(Rey herself even manages to find him a couple times through the Force so even she got to sharpen her skills.)

After class is over and they’re done playing around for the day, Finn dismisses the kids and heads back to his quarters to handle some of the inventory paperwork Master Skywalker left while Rey tries to Force-lift just about every object in the room.

Considering that they  _could_  be watching holofilms or getting some more sparring in - gods, Rey  _loves_  sparring - it’s a pretty tame way to spend their evening but Finn doesn’t really mind it. Just being around her felt comfortable, not to mention the sliver of entertainment that came from the way she swore under her breath every time she couldn’t get an object to move.

So sure, there were more fun things they could be doing, but if you ask him, this is just as good as any of them.

“Hey Finn, can I ask you something?” Rey’s given up on trying to get the door to his closet to slide open using nothing but the Force and has turned her attention to him.

“Yeah, sure,” he answers. “Anything.”

“Is it weird that I miss Jakku?”  _Yes_ , he immediately thinks. He was only there for a short time but - the people, the heat,  _the sand_. It just isn’t a planet worthy of missing. He doesn’t say that, of course, just sits and listens while she vents a little. “I know it isn’t the best planet, and it was never really my  _’home’_ , but it was strangely the one place I felt like I maybe belonged. And now that I’m gone - I just feel aimless, you know? I don’t want to go back there, but I don’t feel like I belong here either. Is that crazy?”

This time Finn  _does_  say exactly what he’s thinking.

“Yes, Rey, that is crazy,” he laughs at the face she pulls and rolls his desk chair over to where she’s sat on his bed and grabs her hands in his. “I only say that because if there is anyone that truly belongs on a sacred planet that houses temples dedicated to training Force-sensitive people to become Jedi, its Rey Skywalker.”

Rey smiles, sad and unsure, and gives his hands a squeeze. “But I’m not Rey Skywalker. I’m - I’m just Rey.”

Finn definitely sees how going from thinking you’re an orphan on a desert planet full of people that either want to swindle you or hurt you, to being the daughter of  _the_ greatest Jedi to ever live while finding out you have this frighteningly powerful connection to this mysterious  _power_  can cause a bit of an identity crisis, but he also definitely doesn’t want Rey to think she doesn’t belong.

He isn’t quite sure what he can do to change that, though.

“Do you want me to go get a hollowed out AT-AT for you to sleep in?” Rey giggles at his suggestion and he feels that pleasant pull in his chest. “Because I totally will if that’s what you need to feel at home.”

“Tempting,” she says. “But I think I’m just fine with my current sleeping arrangements.”

Just then, an idea comes to him. He moves from his desk chair to sit beside her in his bed.

“How about you tell me about your time on Jakku?” Rey looks at him a little wary so he goes ahead and explains the reasoning behind his request. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to, but maybe it’ll make you feel better to talk about it.”

He’s also hopeful it’ll help whatever mental block is currently affecting her ability to fully connect with the Force. Maybe she’s so distracted by her past, by this feeling that she hasn’t found her place in the galaxy, that she can’t quite give all her focus to the Force. And Finn really wants her to. There’s something about her power that excites him; he can’t really explain why, either, it just  _does_.

She hesitates before nodding toward the stack of papers on his desk. “What about your paperwork?”

“It can wait,” he answers.

And so Rey tells him about Jakku. She tells him a lot more than he expected her to. She tells him about how she found her AT-AT and about her long-standing feud with Teedo and about Unkar Plutt. By the end of it, Finn has half a mind to wrap her up in a blanket and never let her leave his sight.

No one should have to go through that many years of isolation and survival, but  _especially_  not someone like Rey.

Finn is aware she’s only telling him the ‘lighter’ stories, that she probably hasn’t even touched on the truly terrible experiences she had, the ones that make her glad she’s far, far away from the planet, and that’s okay. While they’ve worked up a pretty good friendship, they’ve still only known each other for a few weeks. He understands why she wouldn’t want to let him in on all of  _that_  just yet. He just hopes one day she’ll feel comfortable enough to tell him.

“I don’t know how you did it,” he says, shaking his head. “You have to be one of the strongest people I’ve ever met.”

“Believe me there were a lot of times when I wanted to give up, when I tried to give up,” and he gets an awful feeling in the pit of his stomach knowing what she really means by ‘give up’. “But I knew I couldn’t because I had to be there when my family came back.”

Finn hates that family was the one thing that kept her going all those years and has recently been the one thing to let her down.

“And even though it’s not going exactly to plan,” she continues. “I’m still glad that I’ve met Luke, that I’m here with him. And you. It sort of makes all the hard times seem worth it.”

Right then, Finn makes a promise to himself that he’s going to make sure she never regrets leaving Jakku, that she never questions whether or not she belongs. He makes a promise to show her that if she doesn’t just want to be known as the daughter of the famous Luke Skywalker, then that’s okay. He wants her to feel like just being Rey is more than enough. Because, for him, it truly is.

They spend the rest of the day talking about a lot more stuff. Unlike some of their previous conversations that tend to be all about Luke or the Force or a combination of the two, they focus on other topics for a change. She tells him more lighthearted stories of her time on Jakku and he tells her just about every embarrassing story he has about his time on Jedha.

Somewhere in between his story about the time he got his butt kicked by a porg and his story about the time he almost  _broke_  Artoo, Finn notices Rey’s fallen asleep, which he absolutely doesn’t mind. He tucks her in, makes sure she’s warm and comfortable and such, and moves over to make the cot in his room his bed for the night.

She may be glad that she’s here with him (and Luke) but he wonders if she knows he’s just as glad to be here with her, too.

* * *

Another three days pass by with Luke gone and Finn tries to do his part to keep things moving as smoothly as possible. The temple is almost out of some basic supplies - the younger padawans are way too generous with their toilet paper use - so he logs in a supply run to take later in the day.

And  _of course_  since Rey’s never been to Nakadia, he takes her along with him.

The trip was only supposed to take around two hours at the most, but after loading up the ship with the necessary supplies, Finn reasoned he and Rey could do some sightseeing. No one would mind if he went over his allotted supply run time.

And, okay,  _maybe_  his suggestion to explore a little wasn’t as spontaneous as he made it seem. And when he just so happens to have a packed picnic basket of food ready for them to enjoy, he thinks maybe Rey knows that too. Nevertheless, they have a pretty pleasant time. Finn can’t remember the last time he had a relaxing afternoon where he didn’t have to think about training or missions or anything Force related. It’s a nice change of pace.

On their way back home, right before he has to take manual control of the ship, Finn turns to Rey, a question suddenly popping into his head.

“Do you wanna land this thing?” He asks. He’s noticed the way she watches him when he pilots, fingers clearly itching to get her hands on the controls.

“Are you really offering?” She asks, surprised he’d even offer, and he nods. “You’re not afraid I’m gonna, like, crash and kill us both?”

“No, not really,” he answers, leaning back in his chair, motioning for her to have at the controls. “I trust you.”

Rey smiles excitedly - the kind of eye-crinkling smile where her dimple shows and he swears his heart takes up an arrhythmic beat - and it’s sort of contagious. Finn finds himself nearly beaming watching her prepare to land the ship.

He almost loses himself in thought as he watches her. Ever since the night they talked -  _really_  talked - he's sort of seen her differently. He was already pretty soft on her before but now it’s ten times worse.

 _She is utterly brilliant_ , he thinks before he can really stop himself.

Yeah. Definitely soft on her.

“Hey, look at that! I didn’t kill us!” Rey exclaims once the ship is safely docked. She even offers her hand up for a high-five and, because he’s not a monster, he gives her one. He doesn’t think he can enjoy being in her company any more than he already does.

When they amble down the ramp and out of the ship, Finn takes a chance and reaches down to twine his fingers with hers. Rey hesitates a moment, looks down at their joined hands and back up at him before continuing their path through the hangar.

Finn does his best not to grin  _too_  hard.

They only get a few feet into the hangar before he notices the gold droid quickly approaching them.

“Oh, there you are!” Threepio pleasantly says when he sees them. Finn drops Rey’s hand immediately. Threepio is a huge gossip and he doesn’t need him telling Luke all about how he saw the two of them holding hands.

“What’s that?” Finn asks curiously when the droid hands Rey a slip of paper.

“Master Skywalker instructed me to deliver it to Lady Rey - “

“I told you, Threepio,” she interrupts him with a smile. “Just Rey is fine.”

Threepio nods before continuing. “Right! Apologies. Master Skywalker instructed me to deliver this note to  _Rey_  as soon as you two touched down. It is the keypad code to her new quarters!”

Rey looks over to Finn who’s can already feel his level of irritation steadily start to climb.

“Hey Threepio, is Master Skywalker in his office now?” He asks, intent on seeking him out to ask just what this is all about. He and Rey have shared his room for almost a month now. Why does he suddenly want to put her up in her own room?

“Oh no, Master Skywalker is meditating at the moment.” The droid answers before turning his attention back to Rey. “I could show you where your new living space is located, if you’d like, Rey?”

Before she can turn him down, because he knows she was going to, Finn rests his hand on her back to get her attention.

“Go on,” he says, much to her surprise. “I’ll meet you in my quarters when you’re done.”

She’s skeptical, but after a moment Rey goes off with Threepio. Finn thinks he hears the droid mention something about her fixing his squeaking knee joint and he knows they’ll be fine. Threepio likes her; he’ll make sure she’s okay.

In the meantime, though, Finn quickly takes off to Luke’s meditation room. He has a few questions he’d really like to ask the Jedi Master.

* * *

Finn knows it’s  _highly_  improper to interrupt someone when they’re meditating and probably doubly improper to interrupt Luke Skywalker’s meditation, but he’s determined to take his grievance up with the Jedi Master immediately.

He isn’t two steps into the room before Luke’s posture falls flat and a long sigh leaves him.

“Hello, Finn - “

“Why’d you assign Rey to her own room?”

Finn has always admired Luke’s ability to seem aloof in tense moments. Now he just sort of finds it irritating. He doesn’t even turn around to face him and he’d be willing to bet his eyes are still closed.

“Because your room is a single, meaning one person only.” He answers as if it’s really that simple, which Finn knows it’s not. It’s obvious he has ulterior motives here.

“Fine, switch us to a double then.” Finn responds, arms folding over his chest.

“Where did you go today?” The Jedi Master asks, looking over his shoulder at him. Finn frowns at the sudden change in topic. “When I got back, I was told you had gone off on a supply run. Those only take two standard hours and you were gone for five. So where else did you go?”

“Nowhere. After I picked up the supplies Rey and I just decided to stay and walk around, have lunch - “

Luke chuckles, dry and humorless. “You took Rey with you?”

“Well she’s never been anywhere but Jakku and here. I thought she might find it fun to go somewhere she’s never been before.”

“She’s a civilian. You can’t take her with you when you’re on Jedi business - “

“I was picking up toothpaste and toilet paper, Master Skywalker. That’s hardly  _’Jedi business’_.”

Luke quickly stands and now Finn kind of wishes he wouldn’t have. It’s been so long since Luke’s been well and truly upset with him, he had almost forgotten how it looked until now.

“Yes, but that is the rule, Finn, and there was a time when you used to always follow the rules. But now ever since Rey has been here you’ve been sneaking extra food and having her stay in your room and taking her out with you when you go on supply runs. Not to mention sneaking out of the temple in the middle of the night.“

“I’m just trying to make her feel comfortable, which I thought you would appreciate but - “ Finn’s just about to go off on a tangent when the latter of Luke’s complaints register with him. He knows about the training. That’s definitely not good. “Oh. So all of this is really about me training her.”

“Did you really think I wouldn’t notice? In my own temple?” Luke frowns, the lines on his forehead creased in anger. He’s definitely not so aloof anymore. “Finn, I gave you  _an order_!”

“And it was a foolish one!” Finn feels like he’s having an out-of-body experience, like he can see himself standing there shouting at Luke but can’t quite believe he’s actually the one doing it. “Rey is special and that kind of potential deserves to be nurtured. I couldn’t just let her sit here doing nothing while we waited for you to see in her what I see.”

Luke scoffs with a shake of his head. “Are you forgetting that I’m her father? I know exactly what her potential is, but this is bigger than that. And you have to trust me when I say that her being ignorant of her power is better for us all - “

“So let me guess, next you’re gonna order me to drop her back on Jakku and make sure she remembers nothing, right? That  _is_  your go-to move in this situation, isn’t it?”

Luke narrows his eyes, though it seems not out of annoyance, but curiosity, like something Finn said didn’t quite make sense to him. He ignores the cutting remark, though and regains his calm demeanor before speaking again.

“I’m sending you on a mission to D’Qar,” the random statement leaves Finn confused. He was sure he was going to address the Jakku-jibe, but guess not. “My sister is there and she has important information for me. You are to go immediately and you are to go  _alone_.”

Finn rolls his eyes. Maybe Luke’s actions wouldn’t be so annoying if he would just simply explain them.

“Finn I am not against you and Rey being friends, it’s just that - there are reasons why I’m doing what I’m doing, okay? I’m simply trying to protect the two of you along with everyone else in the galaxy.”

And there he goes. Speaking grandly again. Surely this wasn’t a matter that affected the entire galaxy. In fact, Finn is starting to believe this is nothing more than an issue of jealousy. Luke wants Rey’s attention and yet she’s done nothing but give it Finn since she’s arrived. Though, to be fair, he wasn’t the one that left her on a desert planet to fend for herself. It’s kind of easy to see why she’d rather spend her time with Finn instead of him.

Still, if that just so happens to be the case, trying to keep them apart is a rather immature response to the problem.

Least he stick around and say something that would dig an even bigger hole for himself, Finn turns to leave. When he reaches the door, though, he stops and glances at Luke over his shoulder.

“I can’t - I can’t teach her like you can. She’s learning - slowly - but, she would do a lot better if she had her father’s help.”

And maybe it’s unfair of him to play that particular card, but he still stands firm in his belief that Luke should be teaching Rey how to use the Force. If he has to guilt trip him to make that happen, well. So be it.

* * *

Finn’s relieved to find Rey in his quarters when he returns from seeing her father. He knows Luke’s going to be stubborn about getting her into her own room as quickly as possible but unfortunately for him, his daughter is just as stubborn and is probably going to stay in Finn’s room until she’s forcibly removed. Gotta love those bullheaded Skywalkers.

“Hey,” Rey’s sitting on the edge of his bed waiting for him. Her eyebrows furrow together when she sees the look on his face. “I take it the conversation didn’t go well. What’d he say?.”

“That I have to go to D’Qar. Immediately.” Finn answers a bit petulantly. “I’ll be back tomorrow, though, if I don’t make it back tonight.”

She frowns and looks way too much like her father for Finn’s liking. “So I’m guessing I can’t tag along?“

“No, you can’t come because Luke is trying to keep us apart.” Finn sighs realizing he may just be being a tad dramatic. He walks over and joins her on his bed. “He knows about the training. The new room, this sudden trip - it’s all just punishment, I guess.”

Rey hums, her hands folding over one another. “You don’t think he’s going to send me away, do you?”

“No he’s upset, but not upset enough to do that,” he assures her. He reaches over and takes one of her hands in his, a newfound sense of calm rushing over him. “But, you know, even if he tried, I wouldn’t let that happen. You belong here, Rey. With...other Force-sensitive people.”

( _Him_. He meant to say she belongs here with  _him_.)

When he glances up from their joined hands to meet her eyes, he thinks maybe she knows what he really meant to say, what he’s too afraid to say.

“Are you doing something dangerous? Should I worry?” She asks and he chuckles. It’s kind of nice to have someone that isn’t Luke be concerned about him.

“No,” he shakes his head, his hand squeezing hers. “I’m just picking up intel. It’s the furthest thing from dangerous.”

“Good,” she breathes. She drops his hand and for a moment he’s disappointed until she turns and hugs him, arms tight around his neck. He hugs her back just as fiercely, taking in that unique scent of hers that hasn’t managed to wash away no matter how many times she’s showered using his gels or used his shampoo.

“Hurry back,” she whispers to him.

“Always,” he answers.

It’s then Finn realizes how different leaving feels now.

Before, he was always excited to reach the destination, to get there and carry out whatever he had to do. It was always about the mission, about being a good Jedi. Now that he has something -  _someone_  - to come back home to, the destination doesn’t matter all that much anymore.

Now he’s just trying to work out how to properly carry out his mission and get back to Rey as soon as possible.

* * *

Truthfully, D’Qar is kind of sleepy for an army base. And maybe that’s a good thing.

Because there are no major wars or conflicts, General Organa and her crew usually take on small peacekeeping missions. It’s never anything too big - if it were, she’d tell Luke who would, in turn, tell the rest of the Jedi - so it’s no surprise when Finn lands that the base is practically deserted.

There’s a man waiting for him as he exits his ship. Finn vaguely recognizes him but can’t quite remember his name.

“Hey there, Jedi Finn. Or Mister Finn,” the man looks confused as he extends his hand to him. “Uh, how do Jedi like to be addressed?”

Finn takes hold of it and gives it a firm shake. “Finn is just fine.”

“Alright then, Finn. I’m Poe Dameron, pilot. Nice to meet you.”  _That’s_  how he knows him. He’s the one pilot Leia always goes on and on about whenever she brags about her crew to Luke. “The General tells me this is your first time here so I’d be more than happy to show you around - “

“Where  _is_  the General?” Finn would love to chat it up with the pilot but considering he’s sort of in a hurry, he doesn’t have the time for it. “Sorry, it’s just she has some intel for me to take back to Jedha and I really just wanna get it and go.”

Poe rocks back on his heels, arms folding over his chest. “Oh, well, I wish I could get you in to see her right away but she’s with her son right now so - “

Finn looks at Poe so quickly he almost gives himself whiplash. Surely he heard him wrong.

“Did you say she’s with her son?” He repeats and Poe nods. “Ben? Ben is  _here_? Right now?”

Poe shrugs. “Yeah, do you know him? None of us have ever met him.”

“Yeah, I know him. He hates me.” It’s an understatement, really, but Finn doesn’t have the time to get into the complex relationship he has with Ben Solo.

“Oh. Cool.” Poe claps a hand on Finn’s shoulder but he’s too busy wondering what the hell Ben could be doing here to really care. “Well she’s probably gonna be a minute so...”

Finn sighs. This is gonna take a lot longer than he expected. “I guess I’ll take that tour then.”

Poe smiles and leads Finn out of the hangar. He starts telling him about every room they walk by, every hallway they walk down, but, honestly, Finn’s mind is a million miles away.

The last time he saw Ben Solo was some years ago when he had announced he was giving up his Jedi studies. It caused more than a rift between him and Luke and was the source of weeks of tension in the temple.

(He never outright said Finn was the reason for him giving up, but it was something that really didn’t even need to be said. Almost everyone already knew.)

Of course, time heals most things, but there was still a fair bit of awkwardness when it came to Ben and Luke (and Finn) so he wasn’t exactly thrilled to see Luke’s former padawan.

“Alright, so, the General’s office is just down that hall,” Poe says as they come to a stop. “I would escort you myself but I have a feeling you haven’t been paying attention to me at all and I actually have some other work to do.”

Finn laughs, mostly out of embarrassment. “Sorry. I promise I’m usually a much better person to be in the company of it’s just I have a lot on my mind.”

Poe smiles, bright and forgiving. “Hey, it’s no big deal. Maybe whenever your mind is a little more clear we can talk? I’ve always wanted to pick a Jedi’s brain.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Finn nods and watches the pilot head back toward the hangar. He hesitates a moment - gods, what if he runs into him? - before heading down the hall to Leia’s office.

And sure enough, because the galaxy is cruel, just as he turns the corner he’s suddenly aware of the muddy energy coming his way. He’s too far down the hall to turn around and there aren’t any rooms he can quickly duck into so -

“Hello Finn,” the tall, gangly, man greets him with a phony smile.

Well. Guess he’s doing this now.

“Hey, Ben.” And it isn’t like Finn hates him, it’s just - alright he hates the guy. There’s just something off about him. Plus Ben’s always hated how much Leia and Han (and Luke) dote on him so the bad feelings between them are more than mutual. “I’d love to talk but I’m kind of in a hurry so - “

“Where’s your friend Rey?” Finn sends him a cutting glance. He’d really rather Ben keep Rey’s name out of his mouth. “I heard my mom and Uncle Luke discussing the situation. So where is she? I heard you two are supposedly inseparable so I assume she’s here?”

“Isn’t eavesdropping a little beneath you, Ben? I mean I know the list of things that  _are_ beneath you is very short but I would imagine listening in on your mom’s conversations has to be on it.”

Ben laughs which really sounds more like a sneer. “Why are you avoiding my question?”

“Why are you even asking it?” Finn isn’t stupid. He knows about Ben’s brief flirtation with the Dark Side. Nothing he does (or says) is a coincidence. If he’s asking about Rey it’s because he either already knows the answer to his own question and just wants to gauge Finn’s reaction, or because he genuinely needs an answer to further whatever scheme he’s cooking up.

Either way, Finn won’t be telling him anything.

“You wouldn’t know what this is like, considering you’re somehow the family favorite even though you’re not a part of this family, but no one ever tells me anything. I’m simply trying to find out more about my apparent cousin.”

“Well sorry, but you won’t be hearing it from me.”

“You just wanna keep her all to yourself, huh?” Irritation. Anger.  _Jealously_. Ben never was good at keeping his emotions in check. “That’s quite selfish of you, Finn. Very unlike a Jedi.”

“How would  _you_  know what’s Jedi-like? Didn’t you quit your studies?”

Ben’s jaw ticks. Finn’s getting under his skin.

“I deserve to know her.”

His use of the word grates on Finn. He knows for a fact there is no part of Rey that Ben  _’deserves’_  to know. In fact, he should just be lucky he even knows her name.

“Right, well, I have to go,” Finn says, pushing past his tall frame. “It was not nice talking to you.”

“I’m her cousin, Finn, her  _family_ ,” he hears Ben yell out behind him. “You’re just some boy she knows.”

Finn isn’t going to take the bait even though he wants to. He wants to throw it in Ben’s face that even if he tried his whole life, he would never mean even half as much to Rey as Finn does. He wants to gloat about it, really, to tell him that she even trusts him over her own father, but he doesn’t. He isn’t about to get into a pissing contest with a waste of space like Ben Solo.

Thankfully, though, Ben’s mother was  _nothing_  like her idiot son.

When Finn walks into Leia’s office, the minute she sees him she drops her datapad and breaks out into a huge grin, standing to hug him when he reaches her desk.

“Oh, Finn! It’s been way too long since I’ve seen you! Luke has got to let you out of that temple more often.” When she lets him go, Finn can sense the question on the tip of her tongue she wants so badly to ask. It’s ironically the same thing her son wanted to know. “So, how’s my niece?”

Finn knows his face lights up but, honestly, he can’t really help it.

“She’s - she’s amazing, Leia, you two are gonna get on really well. I mean you gotta work for it a little bit, but once she lets you in she’s funny and kind and - she’s just really, really great.”

Leia hums, a wry smile on her lips. She looks a lot like Luke then. “My brother told me you were fond of her, but I don’t think he realizes just how much you are.”

Finn feels his cheeks warm. And, well, if he can’t talk to one Skywalker, maybe talking to the other was his best alternative.

“Leia, I’ve never felt like this about anyone before. The Force, becoming a Jedi, that’s always been my main focus but now, with Rey - “ he pauses to wet his lips and gather his thoughts. “She’s all I can think about these days. I’m pretty sure she’s, like, my best friend.”

“Well, Luke changed the Jedi Code for a reason. You should ask her out on a date, or whatever it is you young people do when you get a  _’best friend’_. I know my brother probably has you thinking you have to be all serious to be a good Jedi, but you’re young. You deserve to have fun and be in love.”

Love. Finn scoffs at the word. He’s never really known love. He’s flirted with the concept (he thinks he loves his parents even though all indications are that they abandoned him and he definitely loves Luke for all that he’s done for him) but he doesn’t think he’s ever truly experienced it. He doesn’t know if he could even love someone properly.

(And Rey definitely deserves proper love.)

“Oh no, I - I couldn’t ask her - we’re just friends. Plus I have to focus on my Jedi duties now. I don’t really have time for...romance.” Finn stammers, rubbing at the back of his neck. “And, honestly, she probably doesn’t have time for it either. I mean she just found her family, she probably doesn’t want some guy trying to pursue her right now. I’m totally fine just being her friend.”

And he means that, truly.

Maybe.

“Finn, do you know what the word ‘pine’ means?”

Finn smirks at her clever teasing. He is not going to  _pine_  for Rey. Maybe. “So about that intel.”

Leia chuckles, walking over to the command control center in the middle of the large office. Right on cue, an orange and white spherical droid rolls out from behind the center console, whizzing and whirring before it comes to a stop at Finn’s feet, nearly knocking into his shins. “This is BB-8. It has all the intel Luke wanted, and it also says your robes look nice.”

“Oh.” Finn reaches down and tentatively pats the droid on its head. “Thank you?”

“Now be careful with BB, it’s Poe’s droid and he’s more than a little attached to it,” Leia says.

“Don’t worry, BB is safe hands.” Finn punctuates his promise by giving the droid another tap on the dome.

There’s something else Finn would like to ask her, something along the lines of why Ben decided to show up, but ultimately he decides against it.

If Luke and Ben had a complex relationship, Leia and Ben’s was exponentially more so. And, really, Finn’s just here to get the intel and go. He’s not looking to get involved in any family drama.

“Well, I guess BB-8 and I should get going - “

“You’re leaving already?” Leia asks before vehemently shaking her head. “Finn, you just flew all this way from Jedha. You can’t turn around and make that same long journey all in one night, that just isn’t safe. I insist you stay here tonight.”

If it were anyone else but her telling him this, he’d protest, but Finn knows better than to say no to Leia Organa.

So his trip will last a little longer than expected. That’s okay. Jedi business comes before desert-planet girls waiting for him back home. He just has to remind himself of that.

* * *

For the first time in weeks, Finn has a strange dream again.

He’s back in the dark room, only this time he doesn’t see the familiar blue line buzzing about, giving out all sorts of emotions. Instead, all he sees is -

“Rey?” He can only see the back of her but he knows it’s her. She turns when he calls her name and runs over, wrapping her arms around his neck as she crashes into him. She’s clearly upset and he holds her as tight as he can. “Rey, what’s wrong?”

He can feel her sobbing into his shoulder and he rubs what he hopes is a soothing pattern against her back. It takes a minute, but she eventually calms down. Finn feels like he can breathe again.

Rey leans back to look at him, her hands caged behind his neck to keep him close. He reaches up to wipe the tears from her cheeks without a second thought. He  _hates_ seeing her like this; why would his subconscious choose this, of all things, to dream about?

“Finn, how are you here?” She asks, hands moving from his neck to frame either side of his face. She seems confused, in a state of disbelief. “I mean you’re - you’re on D’Qar. How can I be touching you like this?”

Finn is about to tell her that it’s a dream, that she isn’t even real but he doesn’t because he’s not so sure this even  _is_  a dream. Now that she’s mentioned it, she does feel quite real in his arms. His shirt feels wet where she cried and he can feel the warmth of her hands on his face. Sure, he’s had some vivid dreams before but even this is a little  _too_ vivid.

He doesn’t care, though. He’s still wondering what made her so upset.

“Why were you crying?” He ignores her question - to which he doesn’t really have an answer to - to ask his own.

“I - I can’t remember. I just woke up and you weren’t there and now I’m sleeping in this new room that doesn’t smell like you and - I don’t know, I panicked.” Rey moves the pads of her thumbs along his cheeks in a way that feels way too... _real_. “Finn, is this a dream?”

“I really don’t know,” he shrugs. He has an inkling that this is all connected to the Force somehow but he can’t be totally sure. “Rey, listen - “

Before he could finish his sentence Finn jolts up in the Resistance base’s bed, sweat beading on his forehead. He’s briefly disoriented as he tries to work through what just happened.

“No, no, no, no,” he mutters, screwing his eyes shut and trying to reach out through the Force to find Rey. They were communicating somehow and he wants to get back to her. He didn’t feel totally okay about how he left her, still somewhat distressed, and he needs to make sure she’s okay.

He can’t force a connection, though. Something’s blocking him and he can’t find a way past it.

And if he wasn’t anxious to get back to Jedha before, he certainly is now.

* * *

Of course, Finn is up bright and early the next morning.

Even though he’s more than a little eager to get on his ship and go, Leia manages to convince him to stay for breakfast. They all talk and joke and ask about a million questions about being a Jedi; it’s all quite nice being around the analysts and pilots and mechanics (and thankfully  _not_  Ben) that call the Resistance home, allowing himself to get lost in idle conversation, but he’s still very much got Rey on his mind and needs to get to her as soon as possible.

Finn’s just about to segue into a few goodbyes before he takes BB-8 to his ship to depart from the base when a young woman comes rushing into the mess hall.

“General,” she’s nearly out of breath as she reaches their table, face flushed. “There’s an unidentified ship heading for us. They refused to identify themselves so we have no way of knowing who they are, but they’re about ninety seconds away from landing.”

Poe, Finn, and Leia, as well as some of the nearby pilots that overheard her, spring up from their table and quickly make their way to the landing runway. Sure enough, there’s a ship entering the atmosphere above them.

A ship that Finn has definitely seen before.

“Everybody get back!” Finn yells to the small crowd that’s formed waiting for the ship to touch down. He hears Poe and Leia ushering everyone off the runway behind him as he ignites his lightsaber.

When the ramp lowers, two white armor clad soldiers come barreling out, stun-batons - well  _those_  are new - at the ready.

The sight of them makes him think about the night they tried breaking into Rey’s AT-AT. He thinks about the sound of her scream, how terrified she was when he finally got to her. The protectiveness he felt in that moment comes back to him now and spurs him on as he battles both ‘troopers.

It isn’t a quick fight, nor is it a clean one. Those stun-batons are nasty things and the ‘troopers manage to get in a few shots before Finn finally puts them down. His shoulder hurts where he was hit (burned, or singed, maybe?) by one of the batons and he can feel a few cuts on his face.

“Are you okay, buddy?” Poe asks, he, Leia and a few other pilots approaching him and the two bodies of the Stormtroopers.

“You kidding me? That was light work,” Finn tries to laugh but just ends up coughing. They must have gotten him in his ribs, too. “I’m afraid your base is compromised, though.”

Leia rests a hand on his shoulder, her other hand pulling his chin her direction so she could examine the semi-deep cut on his face. “Don’t you worry, I have protocols for these sorts of things. Do you need to get checked out?”

Finn winces at the sting of the cut just below his hairline. “Probably. I could use a bandage for my cut, and maybe some ice for my shoulder, but besides that, I should be okay.”

BB-8 rolls next to Finn’s foot and extends a square of gauze from one of its mechanical arms. He takes it with a smile. Pretty useful, this droid.

“Thanks, BB,” he says pressing the square to his wound.

“Poe, take Finn to the medbay while I update BB-8 with the coordinates of our new base for Luke,” she orders. Poe dutifully nods and ushers Finn from the hangar runway toward the medbay.

The doctor there patches him up quickly. She stitches his wound and doesn’t fuss too much when he insists all he needs is an ice pack for his shoulder.

He and Poe try to figure out what exactly just happened -  _”I know of a lot of small rogue groups but none of them have the manpower or financial backing to fund_ Stormtroopers _,”_  Poe had said - until BB-8 rolls in, freshly updated with coordinates and no doubt a report of the ‘trooper ambush.

Once Finn is back at the entrance to his ship, Leia gives him some instructions -  _”get back to Jedha as fast and as safely as you can, deliver BB-8 to my brother and make sure he gets in contact with me as soon as possible,”_  - before sending him off.

As he takes off, he can’t shake this nagging feeling that something terrible is coming. The Stormtroopers on Jakku, the Stormtroopers here - it’s definitely not a coincidence but he can’t figure out how exactly they’re connected.

The ‘troopers on Jakku were seemingly after Rey but the ones that showed up today? It seemed like they were there to pick a fight but who sends just  _two_  Stormtroopers into battle an  _entire base full_  of people?

No, the two Stormtrooper appearances might be connected but their purposes were not the same.

If they want to have any chance at stopping whatever impending doom is coming, they need to figure it out and quickly.

* * *

When Finn flips the ship’s engine off, BB-8 is already whizzing about, asking him all sorts of things in binary.

“Yeah, this is where Luke is.” Finn answers before BB rattles off another question. “No, I don’t know what he’ll do with you after he has the intel. Maybe he’ll fly you back to wherever the new Resistance base is himself. You ready to go?”

BB beeps in the affirmative and follows Finn down the ramp of the ship. It’s much faster than him, though, and ends up at the feet of Luke and Rey, who were both waiting for them, before he does.

As soon as he’s close enough, Finn gives them a wave and a smile even though they both look quite concerned about his apparent head injury.

“Hey - “ The word barely leaves his lips before Rey’s hands are on either side of his face, turning it so she can get a better look at the bandage above his eyebrow. He lets out a soft chuckle, grabbing her hand and pulling her fingertips away from the bandage and answers her question before she even asks it. “Don’t worry, I’m fine. It’s barely a scratch.”

“What happened?” Luke asks, hovering beside him with BB-8 at his heels.

“Two Stormtroopers showed up on D’Qar, but I managed to handle them. The base is compromised, though, so the General is moving. The coordinates are with BB-8, as is the intel you asked for. Leia also asked that you contact her ASAP.” Finn groans, rolling his sore shoulder. “I’m gonna head over to the medbay and get something for my shoulder.”

“I’ll come with you,” Rey says with the sort of finality that left no room for Finn to protest. He doesn’t want her to fuss over him but he gets the feeling he has no say in the matter. At least not right now.

Finn catches Luke looking at them out of the corner of his eye. His lips are pressed in a thin line like the two of them simply interacting is a troubling sight.

“Well BB-8 and I will be in my office. I’d like to see you, Finn, whenever you’re feeling up to it.” He says before making his way out of the hangar, toward his office.

Finn waits until he and Rey are halfway to the medbay to ask how things were while he was gone. The sad smile on her face doesn’t go unnoticed.

“I think things are getting better, actually,” she answers with a shrug. “I told you that I’d try to cut him some slack so - it’s starting to hurt less whenever I see him. I mean I still get the feeling that he’s hiding something but we’re cordial, I guess.”

And while it isn’t exactly a glowing report, he is glad they’re talking and being friendly. Despite whatever issues Finn has with Luke, he still wants him to be the father Rey deserves - even if he insists on being stubborn about this Force thing.

When they finally make it to the medbay, none of the doctors that are usually around are anywhere to be found. It is pretty late in the afternoon, though, so he figured maybe they all just took an early dinner.

“Huh, looks like everyone’s out,” Finn says looking around the empty medical room. “I’ll guess I’ll just come back later then - “

“I could take a look for you,” Rey can do a lot of things but if she happens to have some sort of weird healing touch, he’s gonna officially consider her way too good to be true. “I happen to be very knowledgeable when it comes to injuries since, you know, there were no fancy medbays on Jakku.”

Finn hesitates for a moment before giving her a smirk. “Alright Dr. Skywalker, where do you want me?”

Rey rolls her eyes before nodding toward the exam table behind him. He hops up and removes his robe, leaving him in his tunic.

“Uh, can you take the tunic off too? I need to actually  _see_  your shoulder.”

“Yeah,” he answers after a beat of silence. He hates how his voice cracked just then. “Yeah, I can - sure.”

Finn pulls his tunic over his head, the cool air in the medbay bringing goose pimples to his skin. There’s a part of him that knows, really, this is no big deal, but there’s the other part of him that is buzzing at the thought of Rey’s hands on his skin. He thinks that part should calm down a bit.

“It looks like it’s just a bruise,” he hears her rummaging around in the nearby drawers before he feels her behind him again. “It’s not that bad, though, but I’m gonna put some of this cooling stuff on it just to be safe, okay?”

He only nods because his voice has completely left him. He only has a second to prepare himself -  _’honestly, calm down’_  - before he feels the cold gel on his sore shoulder.

The pads of Rey’s fingers are rough, much like her palms. He imagines that comes from a life of collecting scraps and building trinkets out of twisted up metal that was of no value, thus making it okay to fiddle with. But even with the hard skin of her hands, her touch is soft. She massages his shoulder with the sort of delicateness that a scavenger like her should have no business having. It sort of sums her up perfectly; tough, yet gentle.

Finn never gave too much thought about the future, and whenever he did, he pictured himself being much like Luke. He just assumed he’d grow to become a Jedi Master and spend his days teaching the ways of the Force. It wasn’t until he met Rey that he started thinking otherwise.

Almost directly contradictory to his learnings, Finn went and got attached to Rey.

At first, she was just a mission. She was a girl that Luke wanted and, as a Jedi, it was his duty to deliver her. But after meeting her, spending time with her, and finding out what he now knows about her, he can’t really imagine  _not_  being around her. She quickly ascended to being his friend - his  _best_  friend - and he can’t picture a future without his best friend in it.

Then, of course, there was the thing he had tried to ignore but really couldn’t anymore (thanks to Leia): his attraction toward her.

At first, it felt benign, harmless. She was cute - beautiful, really - he could openly admit that, so of course he would get a few flips of the tummy whenever she smiled at him or a little uptick of nerves whenever her skin brushed against his.

But when he found himself staring at her lips, wondering how they’d feel against his or whenever they sparred and he’d catch himself watching the rise and fall of her chest before mentally chastising himself for it, he realized maybe it wasn’t so harmless after all.

So he likes her. A lot. And he isn’t quite sure what to do about it because he’s never actually been in this situation before.

Does he take Leia’s advice and ask her out? Where would they even go? There aren’t exactly many social hangouts on Jedha - none; there are none - so it’s not like he’d be able to take her anywhere fun. And taking her to another planet would require a lot of sneaking considering Luke has the two of them on lockdown.

Plus, he meant what he said to Leia. They both have a lot going on right now, it probably wouldn’t be the smartest move to try and get involved but -

“Finn?” Her voice pulls him out of his thoughts. He turns his head to let her know he’s listening. “When you were gone, I had this...dream about you. Only it didn’t feel like a dream it felt - “

“Real,” he finishes for her. He waits until her hands have left his shoulder to turn on the exam table to face her.

She inches closer to him, her eyes practically shimmering with hope. “So you felt it too?”

Finn’s about to fill her in on his working theory - he doesn’t even know if Force communication is a  _thing_  but he can’t really find another way to explain it - when the medbay door slides open and Dr. Kalonia walks in.

“Excuse me,” she says with a raised eyebrow. Rey quickly takes a step away from him while he scrambles to put his tunic back on. “Can I help you two with something?”

They both start explaining at the same time -  _”I was just helping Finn with his shoulder - “, “Rey was just being a pal and helping patch me up - “_  - which only ends up sounding like a muddled mess of words.

“Right,” Dr. Kalonia nods. “Well, whatever you two were doing - “

“It’s done now so we’ll just be going!” Rey says with an innocent smile. She grabs hold of Finn’s hand and pulls him off of the exam table and out of the door with her. He makes sure to give Dr. Kalonia a look of apology when he passes her. He sure hopes she doesn’t report this - this being finding his daughter and shirtless protege talking awfully close - to Luke. They really don’t need to give him any more reason to feel a certain way about their friendship.

Neither Finn nor Rey brings up the weird Force-dream for the rest of the night. He tells her about his trip to D’Qar, minus the mention of Stormtroopers and Ben, and she tells him about the new acquaintances she made while he was away.

It’s nice and relaxing and exactly what he needed after the morning he had. And even though he swears he had every intent on walking her back to her quarters, Rey falls asleep in his bed. Again.

That night, Finn has no strange dreams. In fact, he sleeps rather peacefully. He wonders if it’s because he’s back on Jedha, in his own room, or if it’s because of the girl snoring a few feet away from him.

He makes a mental note that as soon as he wakes up the next morning, he’ll head straight for the archives to find out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so remember last chapter when i was apologizing for giving u all 8k words? ahaha well apparently that was child's play bc this chapter is even longer. seriously, let me know if the length is Too Much bc i feel kind of weird posting such long chapters but i also don't want to edit so much and end up leaving details and stuff out.
> 
> and now for my random ramblings.
> 
> i hope the beginning bit wasn't too confusing. it was just a scene i felt was necessary and since it wasn't from finn's pov, it got italicized. i also feel like i've crammed about a million ~questions~ into this already but, not to worry. answers shall come in the next chapter! anyway, im looking forward to reading any reviews u lovely lot leave! ty for reading! :))
> 
> also, anyone know of any good betas? i may need one since this is turning out to be a fic of epic (not really) proportions lmao


	4. four.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> let's take a visit to a city in the clouds.

The archives are a mess.

Not literally, of course, it’s just that Finn’s been here for over an hour looking for a very specific needle in a giant stack of other needles and has yet to find what he's looking for.

He’s checked the books on physical ailments, on psychological ailments, on disease and disorders and yet nothing had anything describing his symptoms.

When he’s combing through a digital archive on his datapad about a Jedi that slowly lost his ability to tap into the Force - gods he hopes that’s not what’s happening to him - he suddenly wishes Rey had come with him.

He invited her, obviously, but she declined. She said she had standing plans with one of the Jedi instructors, Sovi. She also happened to be a part of the crew that ran maintenance on the temple’s ships so Finn could understand how spending the morning fixing up the spacecrafts instead of tediously searching the archives with him seemed more appealing.

Which was fine. He’s not about to go and get possessive over her. It makes him happy to think she could possibly find her niche with the ship maintenance crew. Rey deserves to have a lot of friends, and he fully supports it.

He just thinks this menial task would seem a lot less so if she were here with him.

“What you’re looking for isn’t here,” Finn was so entrenched in his search he didn’t even hear Luke approach him until the older man was already standing before him. Not exactly a shimmering display of Jedi-level awareness.

Finn bristles a bit at Luke’s presence. He’s still harboring some ill-will over Rey’s sleeping arrangements and he doesn’t feel like dealing with him at the moment.

“How do you know what I’m looking for?” He asks and Luke pulls a face that Finn can only interpret to mean, ’ _because I’m me_ ’. “Right, you’re an all-powerful Jedi Master. Why _wouldn’t_ you know what I’m looking for.”

Luke gives a small laugh, pulling out the chair across from Finn to sit. He pushes back his robes and pulls a large book from seemingly nowhere. The book kicks up a puff of dust when it slams against the table and, really, Finn could’ve done with a warning.

“ _That_ is what you’re looking for,” he says matter-of-factly. Finn runs his fingers along the strange writing on the cover of the book. “This is the reason I was gone a few days ago, I had to find this. I needed it to confirm my suspicions about you and Rey before I wiped both of your memories and sent her back to Jakku.”

Finn’s face drops and Luke just...laughs. Was that a  _joke_?

“Sorry. Bad attempt at humor,” he apologizes and, yeah. If that wasn’t an absolute understatement. “Anyway, all the answers to your questions are in that book.”

Finn quickly skims over a few passages. A lot of different words were used but they all essentially said the same thing. The book spoke of a very specific type of connection between Jedi (or Sith) and detailed its uses, the advantages, the pitfalls - everything.

“So Rey and I have one of these Force bonds thingys?” Luke nods rather somberly. “That’s...it? I mean it’s neat and everything, I guess I just expected something...more.”

“Finn, Force bonds are  _more_ ,” he sighs, hands folding over one another. “This type of bond is almost never heard of, especially these days. They were mostly artificially created to connect two people and help them gain an advantage in battle. It’s a concept that was used more amongst the Sith than the Jedi, mainly because of the sheer strength of power it creates. A Force bond can be quite dangerous, to say the least.“

Finn sighs, brow furrowed. “I don’t get it if these bonds are mostly man-made, who bonded Rey and I together?”

“No one,” Luke answers, half-pensive, half-impressed. “Your and Rey’s connection looks to be completely organic, which is even rarer than having the bond in the first place. It would seem that the Force itself actually bonded you two together.”

Luke was right. That _is_ the more he was looking for.

It’s a little overwhelming to think that _this_ is what’s been plaguing him. It hasn’t been illness or any sort of affliction, physical or otherwise, it’s just his connection to the Force, the thing he draws power from, what helps him be the Jedi Knight he is, has up and bonded itself to Rey.

And from the few pages he skimmed, this very much seems like a lifelong sort of thing.

“So I guess this explains why you don’t want Rey learning about the Force,” he says. “And why you’ve subtly been trying to keep us apart.”

“Finn, I meant it when I said I’m not against you two being friends. In fact, I want you two to be close it’s just - “ The lines in Luke’s face deepen as he considers his response. “I’m going to be honest with you. This frightens me. Nothing ever happens by accident, everything in the Force is about balance. So if you and Rey have been given this incredible amount of strength rooted in the Light, it’s possible that it’s because somewhere out there, there’s an incredible amount of strength in the Dark. And it shakes me to my core to even think about it.”

There’s another unspoken source of fear Finn can sense Luke has: that he and Rey _will become_ that incredible amount of Dark strength.

“You can’t change whatever’s destined to happen, though, Master Skywalker. If Rey and I are meant to use this bond to go up against some evil - “

“No,” he quickly cuts him off before he can finish the thought. “No, that won’t happen. Just - listen, I came to give you the book but I also came to tell you that I have a mission for you...and Rey to go on.”

Luke’s always had a very calm head but lately, Finn’s noticed, he’s been a bit scattered. One moment he’s upset with Finn and sending him off on missions to spite him and the next he’s amicably delivering ancient Jedi texts to help him with his problems. And then there’s the way he seems to bounce from topic to topic in the blink of an eye whenever they talk. There’s clearly something weighing heavy on him that’s keeping him distracted.

“Really? You would have Rey and I go together even after this whole bond revelation?” It seems too good to be true so Finn’s waiting for the catch.

“Oh, if I had things my way she’d stay here where I can keep an eye on her, but this particular mission is for Leia and her crew and she requested that Rey go with you.” Ah. _There’s_ the catch. It wasn’t his idea at all. “It should be a fairly simple one. There’s some cargo on Bespin she needs at her new base - ”

“Wait, Bespin? Are we going to Cloud City?” Luke nods and Finn smiles to himself, amused by this bit of information. Leia’s motives couldn’t be any more transparent.

“Yes, you are. Hopefully you two won’t get into too much trouble up there. You’re scheduled to depart tomorrow morning so until then, I guess I’ll leave you to read up on your bond.”

Luke stands with a somber, tight-lipped frown. Before he gets too far away, Finn feels compelled to call him back over.

“Master Skywalker,” he calls out and the Jedi Master turns to face him. He fiddles with the worn edge of the texts in front of him, searching for the right words to say. “Thank you. For the texts, I mean. I - I needed these answers more than you probably know.”

Luke gives a humble bow of his head before a thought seems to occur to him.

“Oh, one more thing, Finn,” he scratches at his beard, a usual sign of his unease. “Leia might have mentioned something about what the two of you talked about and I think you should know that the Force bond isn’t inherently romantic in nature. It doesn’t create those sorts of feelings so, if one were to have them with someone they were bonded with, that person should know those feelings are all their own.”

Finn can’t believe Leia blabbed to Luke about his crush on Rey.

“I will - “ he clears his throat hoping to cut through some of the awkwardness that’s fallen on them. “I will remember that, thanks.”

Luke nods and turns on his heel to leave the archives.

Maybe he’s just being paranoid, but even with a book full of answers sitting in front of him, Finn still thinks there’s something Luke is holding from him. He supposed to be his right-hand knight, the Jedi he trusts the most and yet it feels like Luke is sitting on a secret he doesn’t trust Finn to know.

Regardless of what may or may not be being kept from him, Finn would much rather put that aside and focus on reading up on his apparent bond and getting ready for his first mission with Rey.

* * *

Once he’s left the archives, having read enough about Force bonds to make his head spin, Finn makes his way to find Rey and tell her about their mission. On his way to her quarters he runs into BB-8, who was rolling rather aimlessly through the halls.

“BB,” he kneels and, for lack of a better word, _scratches_ the droid underneath its - well, where its chin _would_ be. “What are you doing?”

 _”Looking for you!”_ It trills in binary. _”Or, at least another friendly face I recognize.”_

Finn chuckles and stands once again. “C’mon, follow me. Rey and I are about to head out on a mission and we’ll probably need a droid to help us along the way. Wanna come?”

BB gives an excited series of beeps and spins its dome around so fast it ends up almost tipping over.

“You’re a funny little droid, you know that? I might just have to fight Dameron to keep you around.”

BB rattles off all the reasons that’d be a bad idea as it rolls alongside Finn to Rey’s quarters. Finn tunes him out around reason number six because he’s too busy trying to decide if he should tell Rey about the bond or not.

Luke never voiced his preference but Finn would assume he doesn’t want her to know, lest she gets tempted from hearing all the things within the Force the two of them can do and want to explore the depths of their bond. But Finn would feel bad keeping something like this from her. He knows he’s felt noticeably different since the bond cemented itself - which judging by his reading he estimates may have happened the night the Stormtroopers attacked Jakku (and her) - and if she’s been feeling the effects too, she deserves to know what’s causing them.

But then again, given the small identity crisis finding out her father is Luke Skywalker gave her, what if finding out she’s bonded to Finn somehow changes things, makes her want to run back to Jakku? Meeting your father, finding out you’re a powerful Force user _and_ that your very being is tethered to someone else for the rest of your life might just be a little too much for Rey to handle in such a short span of time.

In the end, Finn decides he’ll wait. He still has more reading to do and he’d like to have all the answers - and maybe give her some time before dropping the next bombshell on her - before he tells her.

When he and BB-8 arrive at her door, BB taps the door lightly with his dome which makes Finn laugh. Such a weird droid.

“Hey Rey, it’s me,” he says just loud enough for her to hear. “Your super cool Jedi Knight friend.”

 _”Oh, you’re so humble,”_ BB beeps before Finn shushes it. There’s quite an unusual amount of commotion coming from inside the room and it’s actually starting to worry him a bit. Is she in some sort of trouble?

“Just a second!” Rey calls out. There’s a loud thud, some light swearing and then another thud before the keypad for the door clicks and the door slides open. “Sorry, about that.”

Finn carefully steps inside, surveying the room - it is his first time here, after all - before turning his attention to her. “‘S alright. Are you okay, though? It sounded like you fell - “

Ever since she’s arrived Rey’s alternated between her Jakku clothes and the ones Finn fished out of the laundry room for her, but it would seem she got a new outfit to go along with her new room.

“You - you, uh, got some new clothes,” Finn muses.

“Yeah,” Rey smiles, shy and slightly unsure. “My Jakku ones were pretty pitiful and the ones you got for me were a little big, so Sovi let me borrow some of hers since we’re pretty close in size. Do you like them?”

Finn nods (embarrassingly) eagerly. They _are_ a much better fit for her. Since they’re Sovi’s they’re traditional Jedi garb and - something about seeing Rey all dressed like a Jedi make his stomach feel...warm. He swears that tunic couldn’t have possibly belonged to Sovi because his fellow Jedi never looked like _this_ in it. Or maybe she did and he just never quite cared as much about how the fabric clung to her body like it’s clinging to Rey’s. Maybe he didn’t notice the v-shaped neckline - are all the women’s tunics like this? - because it’s Sovi and she doesn’t make his heart beat dangerously fast like Rey does.

So, yes. He likes them very much.

“Looks nice. I mean you, not the - the clothes do look nice, but you look nice _in_ them.” BB-8 gently knocks into his shin and it feels like a silent ’pull _it together!’_ from the droid. Gods, words never used to be this hard.

“Good,” she says. “I was hoping you would.”

Finn narrows his eyes at the comment. She hoped he would like them? That’s quite a curious thing to say. Why would she care if he liked her clothes?

 _”You mentioned something about a mission...”_ BB beeps to him as discreetly as it could.

“Oh, uh, yeah,” Finn was so distracted by her new clothing he almost forgot why he came in the first place. “Good news. You and I have a mission to go on. It’s an overnighter and everything.”

“The two of us on an overnight mission? Really?” She asks, arms folding over her chest. Not that he was looking or anything. “Does Luke know or is this one of _your_ missions that you’re just bringing me along for without permission?”

He chuckles with a shake of his head. “It’s really our mission. It’s for Leia and she specifically requested the two of us and when Leia makes a request, there’s not much Luke can do about it.”

“Do you happen to know where we’re going? Are we picking up more of Luke’s kids that he’s left on various planets?”

Finn snorts. “Funny, but no, we’re just going to pick up some cargo for the Resistance. It’s probably just X-Wing parts and other stuff like that, you know. Serious Jedi business.”

“I’m not a Jedi, though,” she counters lightheartedly.

“Well you’re dressed like one now, and, honestly, that’s half of the requirements,” he takes another moment to admire (and silently thank Sovi) her new outfit before BB rolls into his shin again and trills that he should introduce it to Rey. “Ow! Okay, jeez - you two never properly met yesterday, so Rey, this is BB-8. It belongs to one of the Resistance pilots but we’re gonna take it on our mission, just in case.”

Rey kneels in front of BB, who beeps out that it’s nice to meet her, and when she fixes its antenna, which was slightly crooked, it says that it already likes her better than Finn.

Finn scoffs. “To be fair, BB, I thought the crooked antenna was, like, a style thing.”

 _”No you didn’t,”_ it accuses him, much to Rey’s amusement.

“Anyway,” he says with a roll of his eyes. “Now that you’ve met her, BB, why don’t you go download our mission itinerary and cargo manifests?”

The droid looks between him and Rey, clearly picking up on the clever exit Finn was giving it. Although when it doesn’t roll away, he guesses he’ll have to beg a bit.

“ _Please_ ,” he tacks on, which seems to do the trick. BB-8 trills a goodbye before hurrying out of the room, leaving Finn and Rey alone.

Even though she doesn’t have a lot of things, Rey’s room still feels distinctly her. Aside from her staff neatly resting in the corner, the rest of the room is a bit of a mess. Finn learned from the time they shared quarters that she could, at times, be a bit... _disorganized_. If it were anyone else, his more meticulous side might find her habits annoying but because it’s Rey and he’s endeared by nearly everything about her, he just chalks it up as another one of her charming quirks.

“So,” Finn starts, taking a seat on the edge of her (unmade) bed. “Besides the new clothes, how was it hanging out with Sovi and the rest of the crew?”

Rey shrugs, sitting down in the space beside him. “It was alright. I mostly worked on the engine of one the carrier crafts while they all asked me all kinds of stuff about Jakku and Luke and - and you.”

He raises his brows, a little surprised to hear he was a topic of their conversation. “Me? What would they want to know about me? They already know me.”

“Well, not necessarily you, but rather me _and_ you.”

Finn blinks, swallowing down a lump in his throat. Why would Sovi want to know about that? Were people talking? And if they were, what exactly are they saying? If Leia figured out after five seconds of talking to him that he had a pretty significant crush on Rey, what had everyone else in the temple deduced from always seeing them together in the halls and knowing that, up until recently, they shared a room?

“I didn’t even get the chance to say anything, though,” she says with a shrug. He idly wonders if she had gotten the chance just what exactly she would have said. “Baz and some of his friends came over and sort of took the focus right off of me.”

“Baz? You hung out with Baz?” He asks, trying to keep his voice even.

Finn knows Baz. He’s a few years older than him but still some ways away from becoming a Jedi Knight. Truthfully, Finn thinks he might not ever actually get there. It was one thing to have the Force but to be able to effectively use it was a whole different thing in itself. And in his humble opinion, Baz just didn’t possess those qualities.

(Also the fact that he’s known for being a bit of a flirt probably has something to do with why he’s behind in his studies as well.)

“Yeah,” Rey nods with a bright smile. A little _too_ bright considering she's talking about Baz. “He’s pretty nice. I mentioned that I had a speeder back on Jakku and he offered to take me out on the speeders they have at the other temple.”

“I didn’t know you wanted to do that,” Finn says softly, looking down at his hands. “I could’ve taken you.”

“Oh no, it’s fine. I know you’re always busy with Jedi stuff and how much it irritates Luke when I distract you, so I can just go with Baz.“

Finn swallows hard, forcing a smile her way. He’s never had a problem with Baz before but now he thinks when they get back to Jedha after their mission, he’ll challenge the padawan to a sparring duel. To help him progress in his studies, of course.

(And if Finn just so happens to go a little hard on him, well - it’ll make him a better knight in the long run.)

“If you want to go with Baz, that’s fine, but just so you know, I’m never too busy for - ” the word is right there on the tip of his tongue but he, for some reason, can’t make himself say it. “Speeders.”

 _Coward_ , he chastises himself inwardly.

“Right. Speeders.” Rey looks almost half-disappointed as she nods. “Well, uh, you know we never got the chance to finish talking about that whole dream thing.”

Now that’s he’s done nothing but spend his morning reading about it, Finn knows now that what they experienced wasn’t really a dream but a Force vision, of sorts. They just both so happened to be reaching out for one another and met somewhere in the middle, but he can’t exactly tell her all that without telling her about the bond.

Unless, of course, he were to get selectively creative.

“It was so weird,” she continues. “It was like I felt that I was in danger, then the next thing I knew I was with you and I felt okay again. And then just as quickly I was back here in my bed feeling like I just had the craziest dream ever.”

Finn thinks he knows how he can frame this without giving too much away.

“You know there are stories - don’t know if they’re true or not - of Jedi who used to be able to share in these dreamlike Force visions. It would help them communicate when they were star systems apart or separated on the battlefield, that sort of thing.”

“Do you think that’s what happened to us?”

He feigns ignorance and shrugs a shoulder. “Well you said it yourself, you’re not a Jedi and, besides, we would have to have a pretty strong connection to experience something like that - “

Rey tilts her head, pinning him with a look that stops him mid-sentence. “You don’t think we have a strong connection?”

He matches her raised brow with one of his own. “Do you?”

“Kind of,” she answers with a small laugh. “Finn, you’re like my first real friend, not just someone I’m only being nice to so I won’t either get killed or stolen from. You saved my life, introduced me to my father, you’re helping me with the Force even though you were forbidden to - I guess it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility to think we connect more than most.”

The fact that she sees it this way, that’s she’s clearly considered the fact that they share a deeper connection than they perhaps ought to given the relatively short period of time they’ve known each other, eases some of the worries he had about letting her know about the bond. Maybe she’ll be way more accepting of it than he thinks. It’s still probably best to hold off until their mission is done.

“Well, hey, maybe when we’re done with the mission you can actually join me in the archives this time and we can try to find more information about it.” Rey nods and, before he can get stuck grinning at her like he always seems to, Finn looks down at the device on his wrist and clicks his tongue. “Uh, I probably should get going. I have a class in a couple minutes and you should start packing for the mission.”

“Hey, we’re still on for dinner right?” Finn stops short of her door and turns back to face her. “You still owe me a Jaffa cake since I found you in that game of hide-n-seek.”

“Of course,” he responds with a smile, sliding open the door to allow him the quick exit he predicts he’s gonna need after what he’s about to say. “Unless, of course, you want Baz to get you Jaffa cake then - _ow_!”

Sometimes, Rey is too quick for her own good. He didn’t even _see_ her pick up that pillow before it had already thumped against his head.

“Kriff, I was only kidding,” he laughs, tossing the pillow back to her. “I will see you at dinner,  _with_ your cake.”

She grins, wide and obnoxious (not really; she could never be obnoxious) and he playfully rolls his eyes. “Have fun at your class, Finn.”

Finn leaves her room and walks down the hall with a silly smile on his lips all because of Jaffa cake and a ridiculously endearing girl from Jakku.

He’s pretty sure the two of them didn’t need the Force to know just how well they connected.

* * *

When Luke shows up in the hangar the next morning to see the two of them off, Finn is a little surprised. Given that the Jedi Master usually reserves his early morning time for meditation and other personal matters, he really didn’t expect him to be there. But seeing as how this was an _overnight_ mission Finn would be going on _with Rey_ , he really should have been expecting it.

 _”I can hear what they’re saying, you know,”_ BB-8 beeps from at Finn’s feet. He’s currently checking the freighter ship’s cannons to make sure they’re in working order, just in case.  _”Do you want me to tell you?”_

And, yes, Finn is a little curious as to what exactly Luke could be whispering to Rey about, but he’s not going to eavesdrop on whatever father-daughter conversation they’re having. Their relationship is still rather tepid and he doesn’t want to do anything that could throw off its already delicate balance. Plus, he knows it’s probably nothing but various warnings and a whole ‘be careful’ spiel.

“No, that’s okay,” he answers, before turning to scold the little droid. “And you shouldn’t be eavesdropping either, buddy.”

Once Finn feels good enough about the condition of the cannons to go inside of the ship and wait for Rey, he sees her hug Luke out of the corner of his eye and head into the ship herself.

“Hey BB, go tell Rey to go ahead and get ready for takeoff. I’ll be there in a second,” Finn instructs the droid. It shakes its dome and rolls off into the ship right when Luke was making his way over to him.

“So,” the Jedi Master starts with a sigh. “I know I don’t need to tell you this, but, make sure to keep her safe.”

Finn fights the urge to roll his eyes. He was right. He didn’t need to tell him that.

“You know as well as I do now that it’s pretty much second-nature for me to protect her,” he says, a veiled reference to their Force bond.

Luke’s forehead creases and, honestly, Finn doesn’t know why he’s so worried. The mission is simple, about as harmless as can be, and yet he’s acting as if they’re going to war. Maybe it’s a father thing.

“Look, we’ll arrive on Bespin, pick up the cargo, stay the night, and take off for Du Tenka first thing in the morning. We’ll be back here by tomorrow night. Promise.” Finn assures him with a light chuckle. “Master Skywalker, we’ll be fine.  _Rey_ will be fine. You know I’d do anything to make sure she’s okay, and not because of the bond, but because I know how much she means to you.”

“I know, I know,” he mutters, still looking troubled. “I just - I’ve got a bad feeling about this. I shouldn’t because I trust you and I know you can handle this, but I just can’t shake the feeling.”

Finn would be lying if he said he didn’t feel it too. Maybe he didn’t feel it as strongly as Luke did, but when he woke up and gathered his things before coming out to the hangar, he felt something heavy in the Force. It was like in those scary holofilms when you can’t see the monster yet, but you know it’s there and are just waiting for it to jump out. He really hopes there are no monsters on this mission.

“I’ll tell BB-8 to send frequent updates, ok? Everything’s gonna be fine.” Finn says, a bit to himself as well as Luke.

The older man forces out a smile before pulling him into a hug. “May the Force be with you. The both of you.”

Finn steps back and gives him a confident nod before heading into the ship. Rey and BB are already in the cockpit, the former waiting for him to take his seat in the copilot’s chair so she could finish up the takeoff protocols.

“Everything okay?” She asks as he sits. He wonders if she feels it, too - that slight sense of impending... _something_. If she does, she’s hiding it pretty well.

“Of course,” he smiles and hopes it's convincing. He flicks on a few controls she had yet to get to before relaxing back in the seat and turning toward BB, who was in between the two of them. “You ready to go BB?”

The droid spins in affirmation and nearly tips over, much to the two of their amusements. It lightens the mood right up and takes Finn’s mind off of thinking about all the things that could go wrong on this mission.

It’s fine. The Force is always with him, but with Rey around, he feels its safety even more so. They’ll be fine. The mission will go smoothly and everything will work out.

Hopefully.

* * *

Cloud City has to be Finn’s favorite place to visit. It takes quite a while to get there, but once you make it, it’s more than worth it. The pastel clouds, the sheer marvel of a _city_ in the _sky_ , all of the bustling life within the city itself - there simply was nothing better.

Well. Maybe except the look on Rey’s face when she first saw it all. Finn’s inclined to believe that just might be better than the city itself.

“You know I saw this place on a postcard once, but it looked too magical to be real,” she says, eyes wide as their ship breaks through the clouds to reach the city. “Have you been here before?”

Finn nods, carefully preparing to land. He took over the piloting duties knowing she would probably want to be able to stare without having to worry about crashing the ship.

“A couple times,” he answers. “Most of my visits were short, though. Never long enough to really dabble in everything this place has to offer.”

Rey turns to him, a slightly mischievous smirk on her lips. “We’ll have time to dabble, though, right? I mean how long can it take to load up some cargo?”

He can already hear Luke’s voice in his head telling him to stay on mission and not to fall prey to all of Cloud City’s dazzling distractions, but he can also hear Leia reminding him that he’s young and he’s in _Cloud City_ (with his crush, no less) and he should definitely have some fun.

Maybe they _both_ have a point.

“As soon as we secure the cargo,” he says, a smirk of his own growing as he speaks. “We’ll see what we can find to dabble in.”

Just then, BB-8 rolls in, chirping off the exact coordinates of the hangar where Finn is to land the ship in. He takes the long way there, though, much to BB’s annoyance, to allow Rey to take in a little more of the sights. The sun is just starting to set meaning the city is slowly being lit up by casino lights and neon signs, and from this high up, it’s absolutely something to see. By the time they touch down, he’s sure she’s completely in love with the city.

When they step off the ship, the man standing there waiting for them is dressed impeccably in a white shirt/yellow _cape_ combo with a flashy grin. Finn can’t help but smile. Classic Lando.

“Lando Calrissian,” Finn laughs, extending his hand toward the famed smuggler. Lando shrugs him off, enveloping him in a hug instead. “Nice to see you, again. Love the cape.”

“It’s been too long, Finn. I know you’re Luke’s favorite but he’s gotta learn to share you with everyone else. Maybe if you came around more often you too could dress this good.” He chuckles before glancing over Finn’s shoulder. His smile turns wistful, borderline sad. “I would ask if you are who I think you are but considering you’re a spitting image of your mother, it would be a pointless question.”

Rey’s mouth falls open a bit. Besides the one time she vaguely asked, no one’s ever mentioned anything about her mother. Until now.

“You knew my mother?” She asks.

Lando seems briefly confused by the question before his cool demeanor returns.

“Not personally, I’m afraid,” he laments rather convincingly even though Finn can sense he isn’t being honest. He theatrically bows before her which only makes her giggle, taking her mind right off any talk of her mom. “Anyhow, name’s Lando Calrissian. Pleased to finally meet you, Miss Skywalker.”

“Oh, just Rey is fine,” she says.

“Of course,” Lando smirks inwardly like he knows something the two of them don’t. Even though he’s normally eccentric, Finn has to admit the way he’s acting is a bit strange. Even for him. “Rey it is then.”

Because he’s trying to be a bit more alert than usual, when Finn catches movement out of the corner of his eye that looks like a blaster being slung over someone’s shoulder, he immediately turns to check it out.

“Lando,” Finn starts, eyes still on the source of what grabbed his attention: armed guards hovering near what looked to be a game house just outside the hangar. The patches on their jackets were all too familiar. “Are those Resistance soldiers? What are they doing here?”

Lando shrugs and waves them off with a hand. “They’re just passing through. Leia let a few of them come here and enjoy themselves given what happened with the attack and all.”

For someone who’s supposed to be renowned for his ability to lie, Finn’s seen through Lando several times in the last five minutes.

“They’re just passing through and yet they brought their weapons with them?” Rey questions, taking the words right out of Finn’s mouth. “Besides if they’re looking to enjoy themselves, that might be better accomplished actually going inside rather than guarding the door.”

“Nice to see Luke has instilled that trademark Jedi paranoia in you both,” he chuckles. “Really though, any member of the Resistance you come across is here purely for purposes of enjoyment.”

Finn and Rey exchange a look - _”yeah, I don’t believe him, either,”_ \- before Lando claps his hands, getting their attention. “So are we going to stand in the hangar all night or would you like to know where you’ll be laying your heads? I put you two up in the city’s finest resort, Crystal Towers. Nothing but the best for Luke’s daughter and his most trusted knight. It’s only a short walk away from here which will also give you a chance to get a look at this beautiful city of mine.”

“What about the cargo?” Rey asks, just as Lando was turning to walk out of the hangar. “We were kind of hoping to load that first so we could spend the rest of the night enjoying ourselves and not have to worry about it.”

Lando’s lips press into a tight, thin line. “My guys can load your ship up with the cargo tomorrow morning before you depart for Du Tenka.”

“Well Leia specifically requested we be the ones to deliver the cargo, so it stands to reason that we should be the ones handling it, not your guys.” Finn says, hoping that didn’t come off rude. He meant no offense to Lando’s men it’s just, he definitely trusts himself and Rey over some ‘reformed’ smugglers.

“You know what I think?” Lando says, and Finn can practically see him preparing to lay the charm on thick. “I think Leia saw two kids in desperate need of some fun and relaxation so she set you two up for it. This was never really about the cargo, Finn. She’s just trying to give you and Rey the chance to take a night off _and_ get her stuff brought to her.”

And even if he wasn’t currently suspicious about what he’s seen so far, Finn still wouldn’t buy that particular explanation. If Lando doesn’t want them handling the cargo, it’s for a very specific reason that he doubts has anything to do with Leia simply wanting them to have a night out on the town.

“Uh, you know what? Take our droid to the hotel,” Finn says, causing BB-8 to swivel its dome to look up at him. “Rey and I actually forgot to grab our things out of the ship, so we’ll catch up once we’re done.”

Lando looks as if he might question it before simply nodding and wordlessly spinning on his heel with a flourish of his cape. Finn silently urges BB to follow him before the droid rolls off behind the former smuggler.

Once they’re a safe distance away, Finn coolly nods for Rey to follow him into the ship. They stop just at the top of the ramp where they’re hidden enough from any outside eavesdroppers.

“Okay, so, I know we literally just got here and I may be misreading things, but do you feel like something weird is going on?” She asks with a pensive frown on her face. “I mean you’re always going on about trusting the Force and I think the Force is trying to tell me that something isn’t right.”

Good to know they were on the same page then.

“You mean besides the armed guards and the way Lando seems not to want us anywhere near that cargo?” He asks almost rhetorically, hands resting on his hips. “There’s no way I believe that Leia sent us here _just_ to ‘have fun’. Besides, even if that were true, why would she send the Resistance guards? Even if they’re just here to watch over the cargo, it seems a little excessive.”

“Unless she sent the guards after we left Jedha,” she suggests. “I mean isn’t the new base on Du Tenka closer to here than Jedha is? They could’ve left after we did and still got here before us.”

Finn frowns. “Which means something might have happened to make her want to send guards.”

Rey rolls her eyes, her own hands finding their way to her hips, mimicking his stance. “And I doubt Lando’s gonna tell us what that is.”

That feeling he had in the hangar on Jedha returns to him. He doesn’t see any reason for the guards to be here - the city seemed to be moving normally; nothing really appeared out of the ordinary - but Leia isn’t a rash general. She uses her resources wisely so she wouldn’t send members of the Resistance to another planet so soon after an attack unless she felt it was really necessary. Though it seems whatever reason she had to send them isn’t an obvious one nor is it something Lando’s keen to fill them in on.

“You know what?” Rey starts, snapping her fingers. “We should try and find out what exactly is inside all that cargo.”

That’s...a really good idea. No one actually told them what they were transporting. For all they know it could be something dangerous, and if it is, he’d sure like to know about it.

“Okay. Yeah, that sounds like a good place to start,” Finn nods. “Lando’s probably got people watching it, though, so we should try to sneak into the cargo hold tonight. There’s a good chance whoever’s guarding it won’t be alert enough to catch us - ”

Rey shakes her head quickly. “We don’t have to wait until tonight. If we both go missing, though, Lando’ll probably get suspicious so you should keep him busy while I go check the cargo out.”

Finn snorts. “I admire the confidence, but this isn’t Jakku, Rey. If it’s worth all this secrecy Lando is gonna have all sorts of security measures. We’ll just go together tonight, okay? I can’t risk you getting caught sneaking around.”

“Do you not think that I can do this?” She asks with a carefully raised brow, almost challenging him to say he doesn’t. It reminds him of when he found her on Jakku, right before she smacked him around with her staff. He’s pretty keen on avoiding a repeat of that.

“No! I mean - I mean yes!” He says immediately before squeezing his eyes shut to collect himself. “What I’m trying to say is that I know that you can do this, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to willingly put you in harm’s way. Those guards aren’t gonna care what your last name is, they’re just gonna see a girl trying to sneak into a restricted area and throw you in a cell.”

“Finn,” she takes a small step forward, right into his personal space. Her hands rest on his shoulders for a moment before running down the lapels of his robe. Well, this certainly is a new tactic. “Don’t you think you’re being a little dramatic?”

Finn sighs because, yeah, okay maybe he is, but he thinks he has a legitimate reason to be. As much as he loves Cloud City, he can’t ignore the fact that the planet is crawling with smugglers and gamblers and other men of less reputable character. No matter if they were ‘reformed’ or that Lando has laws in place to prevent any sort of unsavory behavior, unsavory behavior was second nature to these people. And what if the Resistance guards were the ones guarding the cargo? He doesn’t know just how stringent they were told to be and he would really rather Rey not put herself in a position to find out.

“What if you get caught?” He asks, arms folding over his chest as if he’s just made a point she can’t possibly argue.

“I won’t get caught,” she answers simply.

“Okay, but, for argument’s sake, let’s say you do. What then?”

“I will,” she pauses searching for a response. “I’ll just use the Force!”

He frowns. “That is definitely not how that works - “

Before Finn can bring up another point - what if she _gets lost_! What then? - to try and convince Rey not to do this just yet, she’s already backpedaling down the exit ramp.

He promised Luke he’d keep her safe and less than thirty minutes in, she’s already going into a restricted area to sneak a peek at some potentially dangerous and heavily guarded cargo.

So far, not so good.

“Now go get our stuff and meet up with Lando so he doesn’t come looking for us. I’ll let you know when I’m done!” She says before turning and quickly making her way toward the hangar’s exit.

“Wait, Rey! How will you let me know?” He calls out to her retreating figure after stepping out onto the ramp. “Rey! How will you - “

Once he realizes she’s too far gone to have any sort of conversation with, he lets out a long sigh. The best thing for him to do now - since she’s so hellbent on carrying this plan of her’s out - is to make sure he keeps Lando busy like she asked him to.

Finn heads back inside the ship to grab their things, shaking his head the whole way. If it were anyone else, he’d chase them down and make sure they didn’t go through with this, but because it’s Rey and he’s inclined to believe and trust that she actually knows what she’s doing, he’ll let her handle this one.

And if she finds herself in trouble, maybe the Force will prove itself useful and help her out.

At least he really hopes it will.

* * *

Using the tracker BB-8 has that’s linked to his wrist device, Finn finds Lando inside of the Crystal Towers with the aforementioned droid. The two of them were standing awkwardly next to one another, with Lando seemingly making some sort of small talk with BB.

“Lando,” Finn waves a hand to get his attention.

_Don’t look suspicious. Don’t look suspicious. Don’t look suspicious._

“Oh, there you are! BB-8 and I were starting to get worried you got lost or something.” Lando’s eyes dart around behind Finn, confused. “Where’s your girl?”

“My gir - oh, no, Rey isn’t - she’s just - “ Finn takes a breath and tries to gather his thoughts. He can feel BB staring - can droids stare? - at him expectantly. “Rey is not _’my girl’_. She’s definitely her own girl - woman. She is her own woman.”

“Right, the blushing and stuttering made that quite obvious,” Lando gives him a sly grin and maybe sending Finn to be the distraction wasn’t Rey’s greatest idea.

“Uh, well, anyway, she’s still on the ship. She wanted to send a quick message to Luke,” Finn chuckles. “You know how fathers can be.”

Lando blinks at him. He can clearly tell Finn’s acting odd.

 _Get it together!_ , he scolds himself.

Lando shakes his head and starts toward the fancy looking lift in the lobby, motioning for Finn and BB to follow him.

“So,” Finn clears his throat as soon as the lift doors shut. He figures the more he talks the less chance Lando has to go over the whole ‘calling dad’ story, realize it’s flimsy at best, and blow a hole in their hastily cooked up plan. “I noticed when Rey asked about her mom you got a little weird - “

“Ah, let's not go down that road, Finn,” he interrupts and, _kriff_ , the tension inside the lift suddenly became quite palpable. “I made a mistake, okay? I assumed Luke told her - I just thought she knew more than she does.“

Finn frowns. “What’s that supposed to mean?” Lando stays tight-lipped, his eyes trained on the doors in front of him. “Lando, whatever it is, she deserves to know. She’s lived too long with people keeping things from her.”

“How’d she take it when she found out what her dad did, how he abandoned her?” Lando shakes his head ruefully. “No one deserves pain, kid, and if I can prevent that sweet girl’s heart from taking yet another beating from yet another painful revelation, then that’s what I’ll do.”

Lando’s phrasing isn’t lost on him. Whatever secret he knows about Rey’s mom must be something more than just either her being gone or dead. But at the moment Finn’s too busy trying to keep half his focus here while simultaneously worrying about how Rey’s doing to really delve into it.

“And, hey, what about you?” Lando continues, knocking his shoulder into Finn’s. “Surely watching Rey and Luke reunite must have you wondering about your own parents.”

Finn shakes his head, his gaze dropping to his boots. “Not really. I stopped thinking about them a long time ago.”

Lando hums rather sadly. Maybe it was just the last little optimistic remaining part of him, but Finn idly wonders if Lando could possibly know something about his parents and is just protecting him like he’s doing with Rey.

It seemed unlikely, but stranger things have happened.

The lift dings and comes to a stop causing BB to whirr happily and zip out when the doors slide open. Finn follows Lando to room ‘2187’.

“Alright, here you are,” Lando opens the door by flashing a keycard over the panel outside the door and hands it over to Finn, who takes it and slides it into his back pocket.

When he steps inside and gets a good look around, he swallows before turning to Lando, who’s predictably smirking.

“Two beds?” Lando nods, leaning smugly against the nearby wall. “Rey and I are sharing a room?”

Lando chuckles. BB just whizzes by and makes itself comfortable near one of the beds. “This is what was first available, but if you want me to see about getting you two separate rooms, I can. I know how stuffy you Jedi can be about this sort of thing.”

Finn straightens, his chest puffed slightly. “Jedi aren’t  _stuffy_. Not anymore, at least. We’re actually loads of fun these days. In fact, I sort of wish the room had just one bed. Y’know. Make things interesting.”

“Well, I can arrange that for you, too, if you’d like.” Lando smirks, calling Finn’s bluff.

“No, no,” he stammers. “This is - this is fine. This is usually how we sleep on Jedha anyway.”

Lando scoffs, almost unbelievingly. “Luke lets you two share a room?”

This time, Finn smirks, just the tiniest bit proud of his defiance of that particular one of Luke’s rules. “No. He does not.”

“Well look at you, mister rule breaker,” he nods, impressed. “And, uh, if you and Rey were serious about going out tonight, you two might wanna wear something a little less...beige. I’ll have something nice sent up for you.”

Finn frowns as he looks down at his robes. What’s wrong with beige? He thinks he and Rey look rather nice in their Jedi getups.

“Oh! You know what?” Lando continues, excitedly. “There’s a party tonight at this place called Pair O’Dice. There’s gonna be dancing and gambling and everything else Luke wouldn’t approve of. You two should go. It’s gonna be a lot of fun.”

When Finn thought about what they’d get into once the cargo was taken care of he pictured more them going sightseeing, not hanging out in a casino. It wasn’t that he was necessarily opposed to gambling and dancing, it’s just that casinos tend to be quite loud and he sort of wanted some downtime with Rey just to talk.

“Yeah, sure,” Finn nods. “That sounds - “

A loud ringing from Lando’s pocket interrupts him. The former smuggler pulls out a small datapad and grimaces at the screen.

“Sorry kid, an alarm is going off in my office building.” And somehow Finn just _knows_ Rey’s responsible for it. He’d bet anything on it. “I gotta go handle this, but I’ll send the clothes and I’ll be expecting to see you at Pair O’Dice!”

Finn waits until he hears the room door hiss closed to turn and kneel in front of BB-8.

“BB, did you happen to give Rey a tracker like you gave me?” The droid shakes it’s dome much to his disappointment. “Great. Now she’s somewhere in the city and I have no idea how to find her.”

_”Aren’t you a Jedi? Use the Force!”_

Finn sighs and rolls his eyes. “That’s not how it - “ before he finishes, he considers the suggestion for a moment and - actually, that just might work.

Still kneeling, he closes his eyes, reaching out with the Force and the invisible tether in his chest that connects the two of them and tries to see if he can communicate with her.

 _C’mon Rey,_ he thinks in hopes she can hear him. _Where are you?_

For a while, he feels nothing. He knows she’s still alive, of course, and he doesn’t sense any sort of stress so he assumes she hasn’t been spotted sneaking around, but that’s about all he was able to make out.

 _”Anything?”_ BB beeps and Finn shakes his head, brow furrowing in concentration.

Just as he was about to explain to BB just what he was feeling, he feels a tug on his tether and stands up immediately, heading for the door knowing he needed to open it. When the door slides open, Rey quickly shuffles inside, her hand hovering over her heart.

She gives a bit of attention to BB after a happy series of beeps from it (the little attention hog) before turning back to Finn.

“Were you talking to me through the Force? I was on my way here and I could've sworn I heard you,” she shrugs dismissively, not really giving him proper time to respond. “Anyway, we can talk about that later. Right now, I have good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?”

He contemplates before answering. He wishes there wasn't any bad news at all. “Good news.”

“Good news is you are looking at the girl who not only visited the cargo hold and found out _exactly_ what's inside the containers, but who also paid a little visit to Mister Calrissian’s office and did a little extra snooping.”

Finn wants to chastise her for going off mission, but the proud grin on her face is too good for him to do anything that might wipe it away.

“So the good news is that you’re really good at sneaking around in places you shouldn’t?” He asks and she nods, chin tilted up proudly. Gods, was she ever adorable. “What’s the bad news then?”

Rey tenses, her light demeanor growing very heavy.

“When I went into Lando’s office he had his holopad sitting right there out in the open, completely unlocked. He’s been making a lot of calls to Leia, Luke and someone called Maz Kanata. He also had a lot of maps of different planets scattered everywhere, including maps of Jakku and D’Qar which leads me to believe he’s tracking the Stormtrooper attacks.”

“So the ‘troopers have attacked other planets?”

“I’m not sure, he uses a weird note-taking system that I couldn’t really figure out. I probably should have brought BB with me,” the droid beeps in agreement at the mention of its name. “As for the crates, though, there were six of them, huge things all labeled as ‘ _X-WING PARTS_ ’, but I looked into each of them and only one actually had parts inside. The rest were full of weapons, Finn. Blasters, bombs - everything.”

Well. He certainly wasn’t expecting that. Why would Leia be picking up weapons? What does she and the Resistance need them for exactly?

“Also,” Rey continues with a deep frown. "Lando has a person down in the cargo hold.”

He blinks. “A _person_?”

“Yeah, a Stormtrooper. Locked up. I was going to try and talk to him but guards were coming so I had to get out.” She sighs, running a hand over her hair. “So bad news is, I get the feeling something big - like, ‘galaxy-possibly-on-the-brink-of-war’ big - is going on and no one is telling us.”

Finn thinks if this were a holofilm, this would be the part where that monster he's been anticipating finally makes its very unwanted appearance.

So much for hoping for no monsters on the mission.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so if it seemed like this ended at a weird place, its because it sort of did. when i finished this chapter it ended up being _massive_ so i decided to break it up. the ending felt like the most ~natural stopping point but idk.
> 
> anyway, anxious to read your guys' thoughts/complaints/etc. on this chapter! thank you a bunch for reading!!!


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